Imagine an area as large as 40 hockey rinks in a cultivated field. Now imagine that this entire surface is paved every day for 25 years.
However, this is exactly the area of agricultural land that has been lost in Quebec since 1998, or 57,000 hectares. “Our arable land is disappearing under concrete in the name of industrial and road development and urban sprawl. A battery factory here, a new neighborhood there, an industrial park there, a parking lot here, why not? » says the general director of Équiterre, Colleen Thorpe.
The organization launched Monday, in company with the Fédération de la succession agricole du Québec (FRAQ), the Cooperative for ecological proximity agriculture, Protec-Terre and Vivre en ville, the SaluTERRE Alliance, whose The objective is to advocate for strengthening the protection of agricultural land.
Quebec recently announced a reform of the Agricultural Land Protection Act, which celebrates its 45th anniversary this year, and SaluTERRE intends to carry not only its voice and that of the many organizations that support it, but also that of the population.
Strong popular support
This is in fact supported by a Léger survey indicating that three-quarters of Quebecers (74%) consider it urgent to intervene to protect land against residential and industrial development that the Alliance intends to present during the consultations.
Quebec has every interest in protecting its food pantry since only 2% of the territory is cultivable, compared to 58% in France and 45% in the United States. This rarity means that these highly sought-after lands have seen their value explode over the years. According to the president of the FRAQ, Julie Bissonnette, the value is ten times higher than 25 years ago and reaches, for example, $50,000 per hectare in Montérégie. At this price, she says, it becomes difficult to hope for a return on investment with agricultural production increasingly weakened by the vagaries of unpredictable and sometimes wild weather.
And to these prices are added the increase in interest rates and that of production costs and financing programs, which do not take into account the needs of the next generation. “All this combined, it’s a real time bomb which will impact not only our regional pantry, but also its successors,” said Ms.me Bissonnette.
The survey proves him right, since 87% of respondents support the idea of financial support to ensure access to land for the next generation of farmers and, unsurprisingly, 71% of them want to financially penalize developers who speculate on the value of agricultural land.
SaluTERRE has four major missions, namely protecting areas of agricultural land, improving the health of agricultural soils and biodiversity, ensuring accessibility to land for a diverse succession and preserving the nourishing function of land.
In a mode of industrial development
Colleen Thorpe does not hide the fact that she expects some resistance from the CAQ government of François Legault. “The current government is in an industrial development mode, and this industrial development has impacted agricultural land very recently. »
The alliance therefore asks it to clarify its industrial development policy and to ensure that it is consistent with the protection of agricultural land. She also asks him to create an “agricultural land observatory” since many speculators have grown like weeds in the landscape, and Quebec recognizes that “the Quebec state has no precise idea of the number, profile and intentions of owners of agricultural land who are not farmers”.
Jeanne Robin, senior director of Vivre en ville, recalls that agricultural land is too often considered “as a reserve awaiting development”. It is therefore essential to put in place mechanisms to “prevent the protection of the territory from being the subject of negotiation between a few actors, but [plutôt] make sure that we contribute to making this truly a social issue because it concerns everyone.”
There is little doubt, according to her, that the Law on the Protection of Agricultural Land has numerous flaws. “No system has succeeded so far, none of the actors involved, neither the Ministry of Municipal Affairs nor the [Commission de protection du territoire agricole du Québec] have failed to effectively and sustainably protect the agricultural territory against all pressure and speculation. »
The Léger survey, carried out for Équiterre, was conducted from September 28 to October 2, 2023 among 1,006 adults. Its margin of error is plus or minus 3.1%, 19 times out of 20.