For one farmer?

A translation by Judith Turcotte.

In my previous blog, I wrote about the city of Varenne’s efforts to make the Sainte-Thérèse Island accessible to the population. In this undertaking, more than 100 squatters were forced to leave the premises. During this time at the Boucherville Islands’ National Park, only one farmer stood up to the ecologists who were trying to complete the project of making this territory a true protected area for the benefit of the 4 million people who live in the metropolitan region.

The Québec government acquired the Boucherville Islands in the 1970s to protect them from a real estate development planned by the now-famous Luc Poirier (Northvolt, Dans l’oeil du dragon the French version of Dragon’s Den). There is no doubt that the Islands represented an ideal place for the construction of high-density residential buildings; however, it also represented a priceless asset for the population. In the years following this acquisition, pressure was exercised to complete the transformation of the Islands to allow the reconstitution of a forest, but in a large part, the Islands still remain an agricultural zone occupied by one single farmer.

I grew up in Saint-Lambert and I still remember my father going to Boucherville to buy the Islands’ famous corn. It was apparently the best. This corn had quite the reputation and served as an excuse to justify the continuation of farming on the Islands even though the farmer had abandoned the corn crop due to the abundance of deer who fed on it. In spite of this, the Québec government has signed a 15-year lease until 2033 with the farmer. To justify their action, politicians insisted that the farmer would “practise sustainable farming, exemplary and respectful of natural environments.” An expert in communications must have spun out that explanation.

Regarding this, the support of Jean Martel, the mayor of Boucherville in favour of the continuation of farming in the Islands’ National Park by the Van Velzen family remains a mystery. I have difficulty to accept the motivation behind this support. Mayor Martel maintains that his objective is to protect the cultivation of corn because it is considered as an important patrimonial product for Boucherville. Seriously.

The Boucherville Islands represent an exceptional site and a diversified habitat composed of forests, marshes and meadows. The Islands represent an important shelter for migratory birds. There are 260 bird species along with a population of deer who also appreciate the Islands’ corn to the farmer’s great displeasure. It is also possible to see beaver and red fox. The agricultural lands should be restored thanks to the planting of trees and vegetation to ensure the regeneration of the ecosystems for future generations. For those who complain that such regeneration could take as much as a hundred years, I would like to remind them that it is nothing in the life of a river which has been around for thousands of years.