The Legault government took advantage of the budget to substantially increase its financial support for the Contrecoeur industrial port project, where 1.15 million containers and up to 1,200 trucks would pass through each year. Quebec sees it as a way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. However, the proponent is still awaiting federal authorization to destroy critical habitat for the copper redhorse, an endangered species.
The 2023-2024 budget unveiled on Tuesday thus provides $75 million in public funds for the expansion project developed by the Montreal Port Authority (MPA), an amount that is added to the $55 million already announced in January 2021 by the caquist government. The total participation of the Quebec State therefore now reaches $130 million.
The Trudeau government, for its part, announced in 2019, before the end of the environmental assessment, a participation of $300 million, which brings the contribution of the two levels of government to $430 million. The total investment for the realization of the project was evaluated at 750 million dollars.
What should the amounts announced in Budget 2023-2024 be used for? “The funds provided by the Government of Quebec will be used for the project as a whole”, indicates the APM, by email.
The development of the new port still has to go through various stages, it is added. “The procurement process aimed at selecting the private partner who will take care of the construction, financing and operation of the future terminal is in progress”. The announcement of the winning bidder of the tender is scheduled for the third quarter of 2023. “The construction will then begin according to the schedule recommended by the private partner, with a view to a gradual commissioning at the end of 2026. “, specifies the promoter.
Greenhouse gas
“The Port of Montreal’s Contrecoeur terminal is strategic, allowing Quebec to position itself favorably in the transportation market and North American and global supply chains,” reads the “budget plan.” presented Tuesday by the Minister of Finance, Eric Girard.
The government even sees it as a way to “significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in North America, in particular by limiting the distances traveled by road carriers and by electrifying the terminal”.
The MPA project should serve to continue the growth of its industrial facilities along the river. The objective is to build a new port on the south shore of the St. Lawrence through which 1.15 million containers and up to 1,200 trucks will pass each day each year. It would be the largest port project in recent decades in Quebec, with a concrete wharf 675 meters long.
Since the capacity of the Port of Montreal’s facilities on the island is 2.1 million containers annually, the Contrecoeur project would increase the total in the region to 3.25 million containers each year, an increase of 55 %. The project also includes the development of a seven-track railway yard.
The construction of this port also involves the dredging of at least 750,000 cubic meters of sediment from the river, over an area estimated at 150,000 square meters (about 20 soccer fields). This work is necessary to accommodate up to 156 container ships (vessels that can measure nearly 300 meters in length) each year.
Threatened species
The project will also result in the destruction of portions of critical habitat for the copper redhorse, which has been duly protected since 2021 under Canada’s Species at Risk Act (SARA). The feds decided to act after being targeted by a lawsuit from environmental groups. The Legault government opposed this protection without naming the Contrecoeur project, but affirming that it “could have significant socio-economic consequences in Quebec”.
SARA designates the copper redhorse as “endangered”, the most severe status before “extinct”. According to the most recent assessment of the total population, which is limited to a section of the St. Lawrence and which reproduces only in two spawning grounds of the Richelieu River, there were fewer than 2,000 individuals in 2014. This fish is also endemic to the St. Lawrence, meaning that it is found in only one place in the world, namely the river section located upstream from Lake Saint-Pierre.
In this context, the proponent must obtain a “permit” allowing him to destroy elements of the critical habitat. The legislation provides that authorization can be granted if the permit is requested for “scientific research”, an “activity which benefits the species” or if the project “affects the species only incidentally”. Moreover, authorization can only be granted if “all possible measures are taken to minimize the negative consequences of the activity for the species, its critical habitat or the residences of its individuals”.
At the time of publishing this text, the federal government had not yet responded to questions from the Duty. But we were able to confirm that the MPA has not yet obtained the permit it requires under SARA.
confident promoter
The promoter of the Contrecoeur industrial project is however confident of obtaining the green light from the federal government, despite the provisions of the Species at Risk Act. “As since the very beginning of the project, the Montreal Port Authority is working continuously with the authorities to obtain all the permits and authorizations required at the various stages. The last permits are expected in the coming months, by the start of construction, ”we argue by email.
To compensate for the destruction of part of the critical habitat of the copper redhorse, the MPA has planned to restore the grass beds that serve as habitat for the species. The proponent also says that it has mandated the Union des producteurs agricoles to implement a water quality improvement program in the Richelieu River watershed, where the only two known spawning grounds of the copper redhorse are found.
Director General of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec (SNAP Quebec), Alain Branchaud, for his part, criticizes the “premature” financial support of the Legault government. “The project promoter has not yet obtained all the necessary authorizations,” he recalls, in particular that under the SARA. “Furthermore, the regional impact assessment of the St. Lawrence announced by the federal government has not yet begun and no optimization analysis of port infrastructures on the river has been carried out to date.”
CPAWS Quebec warns that legal action will be taken if the federal government goes ahead with the authorizations requested by the promoter under the SARA.