Quebec wants to expand the land under cultivation at all costs, regardless of the fact that several waterways in agricultural areas are in critical condition. Saying they are under political pressure, scientists from the Ministry of the Environment fear that the safeguards will not be enough to stem already serious pollution.
The process of modernizing the Regulation on Agricultural Operations (REA) is in the shadow of “orders from the authorities”, is it recorded directly in an internal document consulted by The duty.
We must “remove the ban on increasing cultivated areas” imposed in certain areas where bodies of water exceed critical values, particularly in terms of phosphorus, we read. This involves lifting the moratorium imposed since 2004 in more than 550 municipalities where watersheds are identified as degraded.
This order is “clearly to open up land”, even where the rivers are bad, our sources will repeat during interviews. They asked to remain anonymous for fear of losing their jobs.
However, the most recent scientific data show that improvements in these areas are very slight, if not zero. In 20 years of monitoring and effort, none of these places has fallen below the threshold set by Quebec. There is even more: the list of degraded watersheds should rather grow, according to various water quality tests, including those carried out by the ministry itself.
“We are not going in the right direction at all, we are accepting a deterioration,” said one of our sources, denouncing in the same breath “an interference” in his work. The will affirmed in the document in question, as well as during the meetings, is “scientifically indefensible”, say these officials.
Internally, we promise to establish mechanisms to make environmental gains in another way. These terms or conditions would in some way compensate for the environmental pressure generated by more land under cultivation. But several people consulted do not believe it. The whistleblowers say they fear that “this is a bunch of cosmetic tricks” or “ideas that still meet political expectations”, since no standard has yet been widely put forward.
“If we open up land for cultivation and we see that the water quality is deteriorating, as we predict, we will not be able to go back,” insists one of the officials. “Seeing the way things are going now,” they anticipate that the ministry will override their analyzes again when these deteriorations are noted again.
What we want to allow is nonsense, because we have already exceeded the capacity to support agricultural activities in these degraded watersheds.
Above all, the safeguards that have existed for more than 20 years have produced almost no gains. All, experts from the ministry as well as independents The duty consulted, cite the riparian strips in this regard: these buffer zones between cultivated fields and a watercourse should be three meters, according to the regulation. “If we have not been able to establish riparian buffers for more than 20 years, how will we do it in the coming years? » sums up one of our sources.
Thus, they want to emphasize that they are not throwing stones at farmers. “There are just not enough measures and funding for them,” we note.
“Nonsense”, from streams to the ocean
Environmental sciences professor Stéphane Campeau says he shares this reading of the situation, at least from a scientific point of view. He uses an analogy: “The logical approach is that before releasing the patient from the hospital, he must first be restored. »
But the patient is still very ill, insists this specialist in aquatic systems from the University of Quebec at Trois-Rivières. Small and medium-sized watersheds “remained very degraded,” he begins. For larger rivers, there was a “certain improvement”, notably thanks to the REA, but it ran out of steam around 2010.
Since then, there has been a form of “stagnation”, even a decline. The expansion of field crops in the last 15 years, such as soybeans and corn, is also “a ticking time bomb” because these crops require a lot of fertilization and other inputs. “So, even without increasing agricultural areas, we have increased the load of phosphorus, nitrogen, pesticides and fine sediments,” he explains. “What we want to allow is nonsense, because we have already exceeded the capacity to support agricultural activities in these degraded watersheds,” concludes the expert.
It is phosphorus that is currently measured and used to establish a threshold, because it is somewhat of a canary in the mine for the other indicators.
From the smallest stream in an agricultural area to the estuary, “everything is connected,” recalls Mr. Campeau.
We see, for example, the effect on Lake Saint-Pierre of too much of all these elements, through signs of advanced eutrophication and suffocation. All of these waters eventually end up in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, in dire need of oxygen due to rising temperatures, but also due to “this fairly significant load of sediment and contaminants” which arrives from other rivers. ‘water.
There is a need to take science into account more in government decisions. And currently, it seems to be lacking.
For Aubert Michaud, the opening of land in degraded areas “carries a significant risk of contributing to eutrophication and the proliferation of episodes of cyanobacteria in certain already weakened bodies of water”.
This associate professor at Laval University and associate researcher at the Missisquoi Bay Watershed Organization would advocate more of a “case-by-case analysis.” Certain “regions threatened with destructuring” where there is relatively little agriculture – Témiscouata, for example – could benefit from the recultivation of fallow land, but “following clear rules for cultivation and exploitation” , he said.
A push too strong
The current government has made no secret of its intention to modify the REA. This regulation falls under the Ministry of the Environment, but the Minister of Agriculture, André Lamontagne, has nevertheless already announced that he wants to “partially” lift the moratorium on cultivated areas. Other actors, such as the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA), or elected officials, such as the mayor of Longueuil, Catherine Fournier, have also spoken out in favor of ending the moratorium.
Some openings have also already been made for cultivation in the most recent regulatory omnibus. Some municipalities had part of their territory in a degraded watershed, and another in a non-degraded basin: around fifty of these places are now excluded from the ban.
However, scientists from the Ministry of the Environment were faced with a fait accompli despite months of participating in workshops and a “co-creation project”: the lifting of the moratorium is “a decision by the authorities”, it is stated in the documents we consulted.
“There is a need to take science into account more in government decisions. And currently, that seems to be lacking,” notes Stéphane Campeau.