To build new neighborhoods east of the city, Laval is currently conducting work in wetlands that will have “permanent impacts on the Rivière des Prairies shoreline,” according to an environmental report submitted to the Quebec Department of the Environment. Excavation work has also been carried out a few meters away on an area that serves as a habitat for endangered species.
Work is currently underway in wetlands on the banks of the Rivière des Prairies to bury the aqueducts needed for the development of new housing projects in the east of Île Jésus. Although the surfaces will be “greened”, the works “will have a lasting impact on the coast of the Rivière des Prairies over an area of 95 m2”, we read in an environmental impact report submitted by the city of Laval to the Ministry of the Environment and Combating Climate Change (MELCC), last June.
Work is also underway in an area where the Coppery Red Horse is found, according to the Department for Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP). Under the federal government’s Species at Risk Act, destroying elements of the critical habitat of this “endangered” fish species, the only vertebrate endemic to Quebec, is prohibited.
Part of the site has already been cleared, trucks and machines are busy burying water pipes. Excavation work was also carried out on the other side of Lévesque Boulevard, on the site that will house a new neighborhood and where the former BASF chemical plant was located between 1969 and 1990.
Since then the site has been redesigned. It is now made up of barrens and wetlands, 3.7 hectares of which, according to Ville de Laval’s report, form “a marsh complex bordered by marshes”. There are also endangered species there, including the brown snake and milk snake, according to the latest data from the MFFP. The range of these reptiles is very limited in Quebec, and the main threat to their habitat is urban sprawl, the MFFP found.
At least two other endangered species are found in the terrestrial part of the sector, but the information is “hidden” by the ministry to protect it from poaching, for example.
Asked about this work, the office of the new mayor, Stéphane Boyer Le Devoir, says by email that “the city has obtained all the permits for this work” and indicates that “the development of this network will take place over several years”. and that no time frame is provided for the period of this development. At the time of writing, the MELCC had still not responded to Le Devoir’s questions.
“Old Ways”
In addition to the destruction of wetlands, riparian strips and habitats of threatened species, the President of the Rivières Foundation, Alain Saladzius, deplores the drainage systems planned by the municipality and their detrimental impact on other wetlands: “We do not understand why we have come up with management like this. »
The proposed water drainage system “refers to old practices,” he believes. It will have a direct impact on the sector’s water tables and the sector’s dependent natural environments. “There is more and more talk of drying out, of water lowering in the groundwater. And there we installed a system that will divert everything from the planned sector to channel rainwater into the Rivière des Prairies. This affects the groundwater level. »
“The water tables in the area will dry up and there will be significant damage to the many wetlands in the area,” he says.
Compensation of $265,000
To carry out this wetland work, the city of Laval paid the Quebec government nearly $265,000 in compensation, the report said. The general director of the Quebec Society for Nature and Parks, Alain Branchaud, has strongly criticized the decision to destroy wetlands simply by paying monetary compensation.
In the same breath he calls on the government to rectify the situation. “Instead of charging for wetland destruction, promoters should be forced to compensate themselves by reserving part of the territory for wetland creation. It would be a form of resettlement to preserve biodiversity and ecosystem services, for example for water management or the preservation of different species. It should be part of standard practice,” he explains.
Instead, the promoters tend to pay some amount to the government. This practice has been permitted under the Wetlands and Water Preservation Act since 2017, which should put an end to the loss of these critical ecosystems. But the destruction continues, and barely 2.6% of the roughly $100 million paid to the state has been used to restore or create wetlands, La Presse recently revealed.
According to Branchaud, the Laval case would therefore have been a great opportunity to act differently. “Here it would have been possible to require the developer to create wetlands in the same area, instead of paying for wetland destruction, which is a form of greenwashing. It would have been possible to comply with the no-net-loss principle before proceeding with the destruction. »
The biologist also believes that the proposed work is very likely to affect the habitat of endangered species, especially birds and fish, although there is currently insufficient data to accurately map the impact on wildlife. “There also appear to be impacts on a natural shoreline of the Rivière des Prairies. However, we must preserve these shorelines, which serve as a habitat for several species, but also as a breeding ground for fish species,” emphasizes Alain Branchaud.