It is fashionable in political circles to praise Jean Garon, the best-known Minister of Agriculture in the recent history of Quebec and whose legacy has enabled us to collectively provide ourselves with one of the most rigorous legislations in the world. world in terms of protecting agricultural land. Recently, however, this legacy has been undermined in political circles.
In the 1970s, a time when thousands of hectares of agricultural land were disappearing at high speed under the concrete of urban sprawl, Mr. Garon made his mark by succeeding in convincing the government to vote for a flagship law : the Act respecting the protection of agricultural land. Today, while we praise Jean Garon with one hand, we continue to pour concrete and destroy agricultural land with the other.
Despite this law, the history of land use planning in Quebec is a long string of twists and attempts to weaken agricultural land. Since 1998, approximately 57,000 hectares of arable land have been artificialized: which means that they are lost forever. That’s the equivalent of 12 football fields per day for 25 years!
Successive governments are themselves major “rezoners”, often through requests from ministries for institutional, industrial, highway, resource exploitation projects, etc. But is the current government consistent with its own law and its most recent directions in land use planning? Some current examples show that no.
A good demonstration of this inconsistency is the situation of the Rabaska project lands on the South Shore in the Quebec region.
In 2007, the government rezoned 272 hectares of agricultural land by decree in order to allow the defunct Rabaska LNG port project to see the light of day. An agreement concluded with the Rabaska company provided that in the event of non-completion of the project (which happened), the company would take steps with the government to reintegrate these lands into the agricultural zone. However, the government recently acquired the land to carry out… industrial development!
So nothing, except the lack of political will, seems to prevent the government from making the right choice. The current picture is disappointing, but all is not lost, there is still time for the government to demonstrate consistency and exemplary behavior in this matter at a time when a major national consultation is being held on the territory and agricultural activities.
Outdated view
It seems that there is always, in government authorities and among developers, what former minister Monique Jérôme-Forget described as an eagerness to “get out the problem” without taking the time to engage in territorial planning. adequate. It’s about using the territory efficiently to stop wasting it. The consolidation of existing environments must be the main solution. It would allow projects to be established in existing urban or industrial zones instead of encroaching on agricultural territory.
But it’s always easier, and often cheaper, to rezone. It’s always easier to get the glitch out.
Whether it is the parking lot of the Vaudreuil-Dorion hospital, the lands of Bécancour rezoned to produce electric Hummer batteries or for Northvolt, whose second phase is already expected to require sprawl in an agricultural zone, the same outdated vision and in the short term, development is at work, entangled in the shackles of habits.
Healthy agricultural lands and natural environments are powerful solutions to combat and adapt to climate change and the collapse of biodiversity. Preserving them is essential. The idea of reducing costs by expanding onto agricultural land is an illusion: every dollar invested now in adapting to climate change results in savings of $13 to $15 in the future. To think that development has more value than the preservation of these environments is to knowingly ignore the evidence. This is an argument that will convince the most pragmatic who know how to count in high places of power.
Beyond the long-term accounting advantages, it is our way of conceiving of the agricultural land that must be transformed. We must stop seeing these lands as empty and worthless spaces, awaiting development. Rather, we must look at them in a way that understands their essential nurturing value for the development of communities.
The government has every good reason — and the powers — to preserve the land that feeds us and stop paving it over. There is always a “good reason” to rezone: it’s a mold that absolutely must be broken. Jean Garon had started the work, but, more than ever, we must collectively work to perpetuate and protect this vision. These choices are, ultimately, always a question of political courage and will.
*Also signed this text:
Julie Bissonnette, president of the Federation of Young Agricultural Workers of Quebec; Léon Bibeau-Mercier, president of the Cooperative for Ecological Local Agriculture; Christian Savard, general director of Vivre en ville; Hubert Lavallée, chairman of the board of directors of Protec-Terre; Marcel Groleau, president of the Feeding Humanity Sustainably coalition; Myriam Thériault, general coordinator of Mères au front; Thibault Renouf, general manager of Arrivage — Short circuits; Judith Colombo, agronomist and representative of the Récolte collective; Pierre-Paul Sénéchal, president of the Group of Initiatives and Applied Research in the Environment; Thomas Bastien, general director of the Quebec Public Health Association