Quebec blames Ottawa for delays building Lac-Mégantic rail bypass

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Quebec is blaming the federal government for the problems with the Lac-Mégantic rail bypass project.

Accused by local elected officials of not relaying the message of the project’s opponents, the local CAQ MNA, François Jacques, instead maintains that Quebec has done its job on this issue, but that it is Ottawa that is dragging its feet.

“Everyone has supported the project from the start,” he said.

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More than 11 years after the train disaster that devastated the city centre and left 47 dead, the 12.5 km route project led by Transport Canada has still not obtained all the required authorizations from the Canadian Transportation Agency.

Elected officials from the neighbouring municipalities of Nantes and Frontenac, as well as groups of opponents, fear contamination in the water table and wells due to the digging of a large trench on the right-of-way of the railway line.

They are also demanding greater compensation for the municipalities as well as more generous expropriation compensation.

They argue that the current project no longer garners social acceptability and they denounced a violation by federal and Quebec ministers.

They also accuse their local representatives, notably Jacques, of not relaying their message to the National Assembly.

“The message is clear, it is a federal project,” Jacques said at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

It is Transport Canada’s communication that is “deficient,” according to him, and the Canadian Transportation Agency is “taking its time” to proceed, he added.

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“Ottawa’s communication is very poor,” he said.

He discredited the petition, which should soon be submitted to the National Assembly. It calls for new consultations with Quebec’s Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).

“There are 436 people who signed, are they locals or not locals?”

He also said that the text of the petition contains “falsehoods” concerning the cost of the project.

Jacques maintained that Quebec has done its work on this issue, since BAPE hearings have already taken place.

He noted that Quebec has committed to paying 40 per cent of the cost for the bypass. Ottawa will pay the remaining 60 per cent.

In the 2022 budget, Ottawa released $237.2 million over five years for the construction of the project and the dismantling of the current track.

“We are going to remove the railway line from downtown Lac-Mégantic,” wrote Laurent de Casanove, spokesperson for federal Transport Minister Anita Anand.

“We are working daily with the CPKC railway company and the Canadian Transportation Agency to finalize the application for approval. The Lac-Mégantic bypass and revitalization project continues to progress, particularly with work on the aqueduct in the industrial park. We will be on the starting line as soon as the application is approved by the OTC,” added the spokesperson.

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The Canadian Transportation Agency is awaiting the authorization request from Transport Canada and Canadian Pacific, which are still preparing the “necessary documentation.” Construction could take five years, according to an official timetable.

A fervent supporter of this project, the mayor of Lac-Mégantic, Julie Morin, expressed impatience, more than 11 years after the disaster.

“The trains are longer with the Canadian Pacific,” explained the mayor.

Three or four pass through the city each day, transporting wood, hydrocarbons and chlorine.

“It rekindles the wound,” she said.

She said the subject of the bypass has become “taboo” in town.

“Hairdressers don’t bring it up, they tell me.”

There is “disinformation” about the consequences of the route, she continues, accusing the mayors of Nantes and Frontenac of leading a “fear campaign” concerning the water table.

“After 11 years, I think this is a subject that is outdated,” maintains the mayor of Nantes, Daniel Gendron.

“With everything that has come out of the analyses on drinking water, on wetlands, I think that people no longer want a bypass. It was never socially acceptable because it was imposed on us. Social acceptability no longer exists, even in Mégantic.”

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“Throughout the region, people are against it,” added his brother, Gaby Gendron, mayor of Frontenac, during an interview at his municipal office.

The project is “an order (from Prime Minister) Justin Trudeau and all those who are against it, they do not want to hear them.”

In Frontenac, 92.5% of participants in a referendum voted against.

“The population is divided and the train is still running in the city centre, in the same place where it caused too many victims,” said federal MP Luc Berthold.

He himself says he has a lot of difficulty determining the social acceptability of the project among his constituents. Residents of the future railway line are against it, while those who live in Lac-Mégantic are for it.

“It’s not a popularity issue, it’s a security issue,” underlined the mayor of Lac-Mégantic, who refuses to organize a plebiscite on this subject in her municipality.

A year ago, in October 2023, the then federal minister of transport, Pablo Rodriguez, came to announce the start of work.

“I understand the people who are experiencing the expropriation of being unhappy and that there is pain, too,. We listen to them, then we hear them, too, but we must move forward,” he said at the time.

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Mayor Morin called the announcement “a spectacle.”

Transport Canada is leading the bypass project, while Public Services and Procurement Canada is handling expropriations on the new right-of-way.

“The number of owners who have already accepted the compensation offer sent to them continues to evolve and, as of Oct. 18, 2024, 32 offers out of 42 had been accepted and signed,” confirmed a spokesperson for PSPC.

“There remain a few citizens who are firmly opposed, but it is a minority,” Morin said.

“There are only five lands affected in Nantes and nine in Frontenac,” she said, adding everything has been done to limit the impacts, the number of culverts, etc.

Lac-Mégantic will be able to recover the current right-of-way to build things like real estate projects.

But the mayor of Nantes, Daniel Gendron, said he will be left with a long sloping curve. “What am I going to do with that? A U-shaped airplane runway?”

The project reduces the number of residences located near the railway line, from 258 to 18 on a 100-metre right-of-way.

In July, 14 opponents officially filed a request for judicial review to challenge the expropriation procedure. The judicial review is ongoing.

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