Ottawa stays on course despite opposition to Lac-Mégantic rail bypass

Photo: Ryan Remiorz The Canadian Press “Our government will remove the railway line from downtown Lac-Mégantic,” assured federal Transport Minister Anita Anand.

Patrice Bergeron – The Canadian Press in Quebec City

Published yesterday at 6:56 p.m.

• Canada

The federal government has no intention of giving in to a new voice opposing the Lac-Mégantic rail bypass.

One of the three affected communities, the municipality of Nantes, has announced by resolution that it is withdrawing from this controversial bypass project and will no longer collaborate with Transport Canada, which is leading the project.

However, a large portion of the 12.5 km bypass route is located on Nantes territory.

This project was developed following the 2013 train disaster that devastated downtown Lac-Mégantic and left 47 dead.

Its aim was to ensure that such a tragedy never happens again and that the population no longer experiences the trauma of the trains that still travel daily, but it has still not obtained all the required authorizations from the Canadian Transportation Agency (CTA).

“Our government will remove the railway from downtown Lac-Mégantic,” assured federal Transport Minister Anita Anand in a written statement sent to The Canadian Press on Wednesday.

“We have been consulting everyone for years, including the municipality of Nantes, to ensure that the project responds to local concerns,” she said.

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“We are always ready to discuss this further with Nantes to find solutions that benefit them.”

In a long resolution adopted unanimously Tuesday evening, the Nantes city council accuses the federal government of turning a deaf ear to its requests for compensation and of not having planned specific assistance programs for the affected municipalities.

Nantes also criticizes Ottawa for having refused 12 proposals for economic, social and recreational projects.

Finally, municipal elected officials indicate that the project no longer has social acceptability in the community.

The federal government retorts that 47 mitigation measures have been implemented to address the concerns of the community.

Resistance

More than 11 years after the disaster, the bypass project is facing more resistance than ever.

It was officially announced in May 2018, with a joint funding agreement between Ottawa and Quebec, at 60% and 40% respectively.

Since then, the neighbouring municipalities of Nantes and Frontenac have expressed their opposition, as have farmers and citizens, who are calling for new consultations with the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE).

BAPE hearings were already held in 2017 and 2019, but opponents maintain that this was before the full implications of the route were known.

The project requires digging a large trench that will affect the water table.

The Regional Wetlands and Water Environments Program of the MRC du Granit lists 110 hectares of wetlands that would be destroyed, out of the 138 hectares required for the projected route, Frontenac Mayor Gaby Gendron mentioned in an interview with The Canadian Press.

Read also

• Opponents of the Lac-Mégantic bypass on a crusade for the water table
• Quebec blames Ottawa for problems with the Lac-Mégantic bypass

The new alignment reduces the number of homes near the railway line from 258 to 18 in a 100-metre right-of-way.

In Budget 2022, Ottawa committed $237.2 million over five years to build the project and dismantle the existing track.

On July 6, 2013, a 72-car Montreal Maine and Atlantic crude oil train was parked in Nantes, without a driver. The locomotive caught fire and suffered brake failure. The train began rolling down the slope, the second longest in Canada, toward Lac-Mégantic.

No less than 6 million litres of oil were spilled. In addition to the 47 deaths, 44 homes and businesses were destroyed, and 2,000 people were evacuated.