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.

Grand Splash de Chambly 2023, Centre nautique Gervais-Désourdy, saut des baigneurs et baigneuses, crédit photo Alexya Morin

Water quality in the Chambly basin: 2nd study reveals very good bathing potential

June 27, 2024

In this Water Month, Fondation Rivières and the City of Chambly release the results of a 2nd study revealing that water quality in the Chambly basin has very good potential for dry-weather swimming. The results of this portrait of microbiological water quality in the basin pave the way for new, environmentally-friendly uses of the river.

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.

Municipalities between a rock and a hard place on energy issues

May 6, 2024

On April 11, Bernard Thompson, prefect of the MRC de Mékinac and mayor of Hérouxville, announced his resignation in the face of an unprecedented mobilization of local citizens against multinational TES Canada's plan to build 140 mega-wind turbines on farmland in the Mauricie region. If the past is any indication of the future, this toxic climate is likely to be reproduced elsewhere in Quebec, where the Legault government has chosen to allow large-scale industry to embark on the massive production of electricity on the territory, without any overall vision or adequate consultation. And it's the citizens and your members, the elected municipal officials, who are paying the price. Energy issues divide your communities.

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.

Méga-éoliennes_TES Mauricie_crédit photo : RADIO-CANADA / SANDRA FILLION

Energy development and TES Mauricie endanger our rivers

April 5, 2024

Normand Beaudet, in charge of mobilization at Fondation Rivières, talks about the TES Mauricie file and the mobilization against mega-wind turbines. Fondation Rivières is concerned. Undermining the social acceptability of wind energy is a threat to rivers. We need wind power to achieve our decarbonization objectives.