Quebec citizens concerned that terminal would pose serious dangers to community
RHÉAL SÉGUIN
From Monday's Globe and Mail
QUEBEC — A poll conducted by the citizens coalition last fall showed that 75 per cent of households living within a 2.5-kilometre radius of the future site are against the project.
Concerns over Rabaska have grown to the point where, when public hearings resumed last Monday, the joint federal-provincial environmental-assessment panel that will decide whether to go ahead with the LNG terminal had received more than 625 briefs from various groups, experts and individuals -- the most the panel has received for any project in Quebec.
The $840-million project was developed by a consortium of Gaz Métro LP, Quebec's leading natural gas distributor, Ontario-based Enbridge Inc. and the French energy company Gaz de France.
The original plan was to build the project in the small community of Beaumont on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River across from Quebec City. But Mr. St-Laurent and other residents mounted a successful campaign to stop it. In a referendum held in December, 2004, 70 per cent of voters gave a resounding No.
The consortium has signed an agreement with Lévis city council to pay an average of $10-million a year in property taxes over 50 years, making Rabaska one of the highest-tax-paying industrial facilities in the province.
Rabaska promised to offset the loss of any property value for all 135 homeowners within a 1.5-kilometre radius of the terminal. And the company said it would pay the cost of any home-insurance premium increase caused by the terminal.
In addition, Rabaska vowed to invest $300,000 in the city's public transportation system and $475,000 for a new park and recreational area, and to plant as many as 15,000 trees around the facility to attenuate its visual impact.
Construction of the terminal, which will last more than three years, will create more than 500 jobs in general, and as many as 800 during peak construction periods. Afterward, the company estimates it will hire 70 full-time employees and contends the project will generate another 220 jobs with local suppliers.
There are currently five LNG import facilities in North America, all in the United States. Government regulators have approved close to 20 more, including three in Canada. Another 25 are waiting for approval, of which five, including Rabaska, are in Canada.
The environmental panel must table its report April 4. Should it recommend approval, local residents plan to take court action, arguing that the building of the LNG terminal violates municipal zoning bylaws as well the province's agricultural land-protection laws.
"It's going to take one hell of a government decree to override existing laws," Mr. St-Laurent said. "I wish them good luck because we'll be waiting for them."
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3 comments:
The oppenents in Saint John didn't organize well.
All people of Saint John (citizens and taxpayers, rich or poor, educated or not) have a duty to step up and speak when things are wrong. We have to protect our community and our families of any abuse. We have the right to expect clean air, water and soil. We deserve and expect a quality of life without government and corporate businesses taking our rights away.
That is not protected and each day we are losing more and more.
Speaking up does nothing. Lots of people spoke up and friends of rockwood are very organized.
What is lacking is the POLITICAL TOOLS, namely the ones used in Maine and Quebec and called a 'referendum'. Without anyway of knowing the majority of people's views there is no way a politician can represent it, and there is no way that citizens can challenge the buttscrewing they get from their elected officials (who rarely even get the majority of votes, particularly at the municipal level).
Although there is a panel for the pipeline, does anybody remember a 'joint federal-provincial assessment panel' for the LNG terminal??
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