Hydro-Québec is fined $40,000 for violating the Federal Species at Risk Act. The Crown corporation caused damage in the area covered by the emergency decree protecting the western chorus frog in La Prairie, Montérégie.
Posted at 12:57 p.m.
On October 13, Hydro-Québec pleaded guilty to one count of violating the prohibitions set out in the emergency decree adopted in 2016 by the federal government. During a patrol on March 23, Environment Canada officers found that Hydro had carried out work in La Prairie causing “visible damage in an area estimated at more than 3955 m2 in the area protected by federal decree.
Remember that in the fall of 2020, two companies were fined $20,000 each for work carried out at the request of Hydro-Québec. The work had been carried out in the area protected by the decree in La Prairie.
The emergency order passed on July 8, 2016 was intended to protect the chorus frog, a species considered “threatened” by the federal government. In Quebec, this tiny frog measuring less than 3 cm has the status of “vulnerable” species.
The decree had the consequence of stopping a major residential subdivision project in La Prairie, carried out in one of the last habitats of the species in Montérégie. The project had been approved by the Quebec government.
The entry into force of the decree had also been brought forward after the authorities noted that a promoter, Groupe Maison Candiac, had razed a wooded area of approximately 60,000 m2 in the area identified by the decree, and this, during the nesting period of migratory birds. The promoter was ordered in 2019 to pay a fine of $20,000.