Rivière Bayonne (crédit photo Plein air à la carte) Halte cycliste à Ste-Geneviève-de-Berthier

Municipality of Sainte-Élisabeth: the Bayonne River is too precious not to ensure the proper performance of its wastewater treatment facilities

August 9, 2024

The Bayonne River is too precious not to ensure the proper performance of its wastewater treatment facilities in Sainte-Élisabeth. Wastewater was discharged into the Bayonne River for 10 consecutive days in August 2022 by the municipality of Sainte-Élisabeth, when the river flow was minimal, and the hydraulic treatment capacity of its wastewater treatment plant was exceeded by some 25 %. On the other hand, the plant's current operating conditions provide excellent overall wastewater treatment performance. This is what our analysis of the situation has brought to light.

Grand Splash Montréal 2024 - crédit photo: François Couture

Grand Splash: 100 people jump into the water at the Old Port to urge elected officials to provide new swimming facilities in Montreal.

July 12, 2024

One hundred people jumped into the river at the Old Port of Montreal for the traditional Grand Splash, an initiative of Fondation Rivières to demand a harbour bath at the Jacques-Cartier Basin and new swimming access around the island of Montreal.

Mine de fer Lac Bloom_Jacques Boissinot Archives La Presse canadienne

Bloom Lake iron ore mine: the federal government authorizes the total destruction of 37 bodies of water to dump mining waste

July 11, 2024

On July 3, 2024, the federal government gave the go-ahead for the expansion of the tailings and waste rock piles at the Bloom Lake iron mine, adding the lakes and rivers surrounding the project to its list of exceptions to the ban on destroying fish habitat. This means that 37 bodies of water surrounding the mine site, representing 156 hectares of fish habitat and many more natural environments of all kinds, will be destroyed in perpetuity. The federal government is thus following in the footsteps of the provincial government, against the advice of the BAPE, scientists and public opinion, and setting a dangerous precedent.

Big Splash at the Old Port of Montreal 2024

June 20, 2024

Grand Splash au Vieux-Port de Montréal 2024: pour un accès public à l’eau du fleuve Saint-Laurent

Batiscan Beach: the coastline belongs to everyone

June 11, 2024

Did you read Ariane Krol's article published in La Presse on June 9, 2024? Her dossier, Tensions sur fond de sable blond, brilliantly documents the case of the Batiscan beach and establishes for good what we've been trying to communicate for a year: the shoreline is public. The littoral is the shoreline that is dry once the water has receded after the great spring floods or tides. It's called the high-water mark or littoral limit. The Ministry of the Environment has confirmed that it has not ceded the littoral and that it takes precedence over any transactions or demarcations made by riparian owners. In very rare cases, some river and lake beds are privately owned, but these exceptions date from the distant past.

Sell the wind, kill Hydro-Québec on the altar of the private sector

April 11, 2024

In January 2018, Hydro-Québec CEO Éric Martel said, "If people start self-generating with solar, it's going to make electricity rates explode: it's the risk of the 'death spiral'." His logic was as follows: if customers start self-generating, there will be fewer customers to share Hydro-Québec's fixed-cost bill. Rising costs would become inevitable, pushing more customers to opt for self-generation. A downward spiral of customer attrition and economic death would follow.