Quebec has issued a warrant to seize agricultural land that Jean-Charles Legault, a businessman from Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, contaminated by illegally burying various materials and residues for years. However, taxpayers may well have to foot the bill for cleaning up the site because the farmer transferred his business to a resident of Guatemala.
Located in an agricultural zone, this land is in the sights of the authorities for several breaches of the Environmental Quality Act. Since 2012, the Ministry of the Environment has issued around ten sanctions against Jean-Charles Legault and his company, including a conviction for having deposited or discharged residual materials on his land.
A contamination notice from the Ministry of the Environment, published in 2021, reports the presence of several contaminants in the soil, including hydrocarbons. Their concentration rates are higher than permitted standards.
“The petroleum product contamination observed in surface soil samples could be the cause of the ethylbenzene concentration [NDLR : un solvant et un composant de l’essence] measured in surface water,” it says.
However, it is taxpayers who may have to pay for the cleaning and decontamination of the site. Not only was the company recently deregistered “for non-compliance”, but Jean-Charles Legault sold his company in 2022 to a resident of Guatemala, Marcos Lopez Mendez, as revealed The duty this autumn.
“Why would I clean the site? »
Mr. Mendez was first presented as a Canadian resident whose address in Niagara Falls, Ontario, turned out to be that of a Days Inn hotel, where he had never stayed.
As the transfer of agricultural land to a “non-resident” must necessarily receive the green light from the Commission for the Protection of Agricultural Land (CPTAQ), the guardian of arable land has opened an investigation.
Communications obtained by the CPTAQ confirmed that the new owner “resides in Guatemala” and that he “does not have a visa” to come to Canada to represent the company in the context of a lawsuit initiated by the ministry of the environment.
The transfer of the company to a resident of Guatemala “could have been orchestrated by Mr. Jean-Charles Legault in order to avoid the consequences of a possible judgment rendered against his company,” we read in an order issued by the CPTAQ .
Over the past year, Mr. Legault has increased the number of transfers and creations of businesses registered on the land of Saint-Joseph-du-Lac. The new owners also have addresses that correspond to motels in Ontario.
In October, The duty was able to speak to Jean-Charles Legault for a few moments while going to where he works, a garage next to agricultural land. “Why would I clean the site? It doesn’t belong to me,” he declared, adding in the same breath: “It’s up to the Ministry of the Environment to sort it out. »