Citizens are putting the MRC of Joliette on notice for having signed an agreement – without informing the population – in which it undertakes with the company EBI to promote the expansion of its landfill site on agricultural land where there are wetlands. The MRC plans to change the zoning of the land this Wednesday during an extraordinary session which takes place two weeks before Quebec applies stricter environmental requirements in terms of development.
Posted at 11:08 a.m.
The MRC would have deployed a “stratagem comparable to fraud in order to subtract the project [d’agrandissement] to any public debate regarding the environmental, agricultural and urban impacts of the project,” wrote a group of citizens in the formal notice sent this Wednesday to representatives of the MRC of Joliette, including the prefect and mayor of Joliette Pierre-Luc Bellerose. The Press obtained a copy.
The group calls on the MRC to restart the study of the expansion of the landfill site by consulting the population. They deplore that the MRC and the small municipality of Saint-Thomas signed agreements with the manager of the Dépôt Rive-Nord landfill site – owned by the giant EBI – without having informed the population.
The Press revealed in September the existence of an agreement between EBI and the MRC of Joliette in which the municipal entity undertakes to “promote the implementation of the project” and renounced its “right of inspection” regarding the quantity and origin of waste buried on its territory, for a period of 25 years.
In return, the company confirms that it will pay the MRC $250,000 when modifying its development plan and the same amount if the Commission for the Protection of the Agricultural Territory of Quebec (CPTAQ) gives the green light to the project. .
EBI has established a similar agreement with the municipality of Saint-Thomas in which it undertakes to pay the municipality of 3,500 residents sums which will total more than $1.8 million if the expansion project is carried out.
“It seems questionable to say the least that the vote of elected officials is secretly monetized for the benefit of a private company,” we read in the formal notice. The payment of “large sums” upon the zoning change “raises significant ethical questions for elected officials and representatives who participated in these discussions without the transparency required by law. »
This evokes the discussions between the MRC and EBI which would have taken place while the company was not registered in the register of lobbyists: “It is not until September 25, 2024, more than a year after the start discussions and four months after the conclusion of the agreement with Saint-Thomas, that EBI Operation inc. finally declared a warrant in the register.”
Landfill project in sensitive environments
The expansion of the landfill managed by Dépôt Rive-Nord is planned for 87 hectares of cultivated agricultural land – the equivalent of 195 football fields – where there are wooded areas and wetlands. It is a few dozen meters from homes and a stone’s throw from the Lanoraie peat bog that this company belonging to EBI plans to bury millions of additional metric tons of waste, nearly 50% of which comes from Greater Montreal. .
Having been aware of the details of the expansion for less than a month, these citizens demand that the MRC postpone the modification of its development plan necessary for the change from agricultural to industrial zoning of the land where the expansion of the site burial is planned. Representatives of the MRC are meeting this Wednesday in an extraordinary session to adopt these changes.
The adoption of a modification “so controversial by extraordinary assembly in the middle of the afternoon demonstrates an orchestrated campaign to evade any scrutiny from citizens,” it is written.
Citizens ultimately deplore that this extraordinary session is planned two weeks before the MRCs are obliged to comply with new Quebec planning requirements, more stringent on the environmental and agricultural levels.
The Quebec government adopted a decree this spring which tightens the framework to promote “sustainable development” of the MRC territory. The latter will have to pay particular attention to the conservation of agricultural environments, ecosystems, including wetlands, as well as water resources from 1is December.
