If the Quebec government plans to build an industrial park on Rabaska land, it will find citizen mobilization along its path. A collective promises to lead the battle to prevent industry from taking root in this former agricultural territory now coveted by many.
The Quebec Journal reported, Friday, that the government of Quebec has reached an agreement with the Rabaska company to acquire the 272 hectares held by the latter at the eastern end of Lévis. Price of the transaction, according to internal notes obtained by Quebecor: between $29 and $34 million.
The Minister of the Economy and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, would lead the transaction. His office did not want to confirm the news, simply indicating that the government “is working with all partners in the region to resolve the matter”.
Coveted everywhere
These lands, excluded by decree from agricultural territory in 2007 to make way for an LNG port which ultimately never saw the light of day, are the subject of several desires. The Port of Quebec has expressed its interest and says it still believes “in the potential of this land”.
At the end of spring, the City of Lévis began an expropriation procedure to repatriate half of the territory in question into its fold. Mayor Gilles Lehouillier does not hide his ambition to make it an area dedicated to the maritime industry capable of supplying the Davie shipyard, which has been promised significant growth since its accession to the National Shipbuilding Strategy.
Implicitly, the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA) also demanded the return of this land to agricultural use. A demand shared by the collective Rescue of agricultural heritage in Lévis and Beaumont, created to prevent new industrial activity from growing on the ashes of Rabaska.
“We need to think about the current climate crisis and the importance of protecting this territory,” believes Valérie Cayouette-Guilloteau, a former solidarity candidate who has now become the voice of the collective. Of the 272 hectares of Rabaska, there are 60 hectares of wetlands, including 18 of peatlands. We don’t have the luxury of destroying peatlands! »
We must think about the current climate crisis and the importance of protecting this territory.
“There are also 118 hectares of forest and 75 hectares of what is among the best agricultural land in Quebec,” she says. They have been cultivated for 350 years just opposite the island of Orléans, it is also an important heritage site. »
If the government moves forward with the development of an industrial zone, it is showing “environmental hypocrisy,” according to her, especially in light of recent statements made by the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette.
On Tuesday, the latter certified, during an announcement made a few kilometers from Rabaska lands, that the reduction of greenhouse gases, for his government, represented the “challenge of the century”.
“It’s not a whim,” he said. It is an obligation. » At his side, his colleague from Agriculture, André Lamontagne, affirmed that an “important part” of his work was to protect agricultural land.
“I get up every morning and this is what I have in my head and on my shoulders,” affirmed the minister, while saying he was incapable of returning the Rabaska lands to agricultural zoning since they did not belong to the government.
Friday, The duty received no feedback from his office.
Keep green areas
The collective intends to remind the government that if it acquires these lands, it will have the capacity to protect them. “All mobilization actions will be taken. It’s going to be the same fight as for GNL Saguenay,” warns Valérie Cayouette-Guilloteau.
The UPA is putting aside the hatchet in this matter and is delighted to see the territory held by Rabaska escape the Port and strictly federal regulation. “If the Port had purchased [les terres], Quebec would not have had a word to say, underlines James Allen, president of the UPA in Chaudière-Appalaches. There, Quebec laws will apply. »
His organization says it is open to seeing industrial activity arise on coveted land, provided that the territories currently cultivated are not sacrificed.
“There is a potato farmer who has a succession and who cultivates on around 70 hectares,” explains James Allen. At least what is currently cultivated should remain in the green zone. That might be an acceptable compromise. »
The Rabaska company, whose shareholders consist of GNL Saint-Laurent, Enbridge Rabaska Holdings and Energir in the company register, indicated, through a public relations firm, that it is “working currently with the provincial, municipal and port authorities in order to find a solution acceptable to all for the future of its lands located in Lévis.