The government of Quebec is doing too little in terms of protecting wetlands and bodies of water to respect a key objective of its law, warns the commissioner for sustainable development, Janique Lambert, in a report tabled in the National Assembly on Wednesday.
According to his observations, the management of the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) has several “shortcomings”, which “put at risk” the achievement of the objective ” no net loss” included in the Quebec legislative framework as of 2017.
This principle, enshrined since 2017 in the Act to affirm the collective nature of water resources and to promote better governance of water and associated environments, requires the Government of Quebec to compensate as much as possible for losses suffered in water environments and wet. To do this, Québec can proceed by financial contributions or by carrying out restoration work or the creation of new protected sites.
The “no net loss” objective must be used to maintain the integrity of wetlands and bodies of water, which play “an important role in the fight against climate change” and serve to preserve biodiversity, emphasizes Janique Lambert.
Except that the Quebec environmental authorities fail to adjust the situation after years of deterioration of the territory in Quebec.Less than 40% of 15,000,000 m2 of wetlands and bodies of water lost since the amendments made to the law in 2017 have been filled, observes Janique Lambert. “The maintenance of the areas and ecological functions of the wetlands and waterways of several watersheds is compromised,” she says.
From June 2019 to June 2022, the government also granted less than $2.5 million out of a budget of $29 million allocated to the realization of protected site projects.
Mme Tremblay also criticizes the ministry for avoiding following the “avoid-minimize-compensate” principle, which stipulates that before proceeding with compensation, the government must do everything to prevent the loss of wetlands and bodies of water.
Ignored mechanisms
According to Commissioner Lambert, who plays the role of environmental watchdog in Quebec, the MELCCFP is slow to use “effectively the mechanisms provided for ensuring the protection and sustainable use of wetlands and bodies of water”, even if , from 1990 to 2011, nearly 570 km2 of these spaces have been disturbed or destroyed in Quebec.
For example, in 2018 the ministry developed a methodology to identify 1,563 km2 of “remarkable or rare wetlands or bodies of water” in Quebec territory. This was never used: “the MELCCFP has never proceeded to protect five wetlands and bodies of water, as provided for in its 2017-2020 strategic plan. In fact, the MELCCFP has never made a recommendation to its Minister to designate wetlands and bodies of water on a map,” the commissioner laments in her report.
Asked about the commissioner’s conclusions on Wednesday, the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, maintained that he had “presented several measures in recent weeks to improve regulations”.