The Environment Quality Act (LQE) celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. In 1972, Quebec was a forerunner by adopting this law aimed at protecting the environment. The EQA has been amended several times and was the subject of an in-depth reform in 2017.
Posted at 12:00 p.m.
Despite everything, it is clear that there is a major environmental issue that is still insufficiently taken into account: the cumulative impacts of projects and activities carried out on our territory. Cumulative impacts are changes in the environment that are caused by the interactions of human activities and natural processes that accumulate over time and space.
Why is this a major environmental issue?
The EQA allows an activity considered to pose a low risk to the environment to be carried out by filing a declaration of conformity. The promoter declares that his project complies with the laws and regulations, without evaluation by the Ministry of the Environment. The proliferation of activities carried out in this way is worrying since no mechanism allows adequate consideration of the cumulative impacts of these activities when they are carried out in the same environment. Without this, how can we be sure that these activities really pose a low risk to the environment?
Some projects seem to be designed according to regulatory thresholds. For example, some projects may be split to be authorized through ministerial authorization rather than being subject to an environmental impact assessment and review procedure. This is what residents of Saint-Adelphe have denounced concerning a mega-project of a pigsty.
In some regions, industrial projects are multiplying and the cumulative effects of these are worrying the population since their consideration seems to escape the decision-making process.
This is particularly the case for the L’Assomption-Sud–Longue-Pointe sector in the borough of Mercier–Hochelaga-Maisonneuve, where several projects are planned.
In some villages and towns, development takes place near activities that emit contaminants, while municipalities have few means of considering the cumulative environmental issues in their territorial planning. The development of the city of Rouyn-Noranda around the Horne Foundry is an example.
How to correct the situation?
Several solutions can be proposed to better consider the cumulative impacts. In our opinion, the establishment of a regional environmental assessment is the most promising option.
The regional environmental assessment (REA) would make it possible to draw a complete environmental portrait of a region to determine the sensitivities and particularities of the environments and ecosystems. The ERA would be part of a process aimed at acquiring prior knowledge of the territory, essential for truly sustainable development.
Such an assessment would provide a better view of the impacts that developments and activities may have on an entire region and on ecosystems. It would make it possible to go beyond an evaluation per project.
The ERA would support informed decision-making by public players and would also benefit the population, who would have better knowledge of the state of their living environment, and promoters who could better plan the implementation of their activities.
A realistic solution
Quebec law does not currently provide for the possibility of conducting an REA. The EQA allows for two types of environmental assessment to be carried out: the environmental impact assessment and review procedure, which assesses the impacts of a specific project, and the strategic environmental assessment, which refers to documents of the Administration. The EQA provides a specific procedure for each of these forms of environmental assessment. The strategic environmental assessment procedure is the one that offers the most interesting model from which to draw inspiration for setting up an ERA procedure.
A territorial and environmental planning tool
The portrait drawn by an ERA could be used by the Ministry of the Environment during project analysis, by the Ministry of Municipal Affairs and Housing, by metropolitan communities, RCMs and municipalities in territorial planning. . Even the Department of Energy and Natural Resources could use it in their planning.
Several territorial data are collected by different actors (departments, municipalities, MRC, etc.). For example, MRCs must develop regional plans for wetlands and bodies of water and master plans for water. The ERA would ensure convergence and consistency in the use of these tools. It is an essential element for building complete, sustainable, inclusive and green living environments – a vision supported by the National Policy on Architecture and Land Use Planning.
The Quebec government wants to quickly implement this policy. Benoit Charette, then Minister of the Environment, reiterated during a debate on the environment last September 24 the government’s intention that this implementation be the subject of the first bill to be tabled.
It is time to be creative and implement innovative tools, inspired by best practices, to meet the needs of populations and growing environmental issues.