A Quebec company was fined $12,500 for destroying nests of Bank Swallows, a threatened species

July 8, 2024 – Sainte-Anne-des-Monts, Quebec – Environment and Climate Change Canada

On July 4, 2024, at the Sainte-Anne-des-Monts courthouse, Les Entreprises Énia Lafontaine was ordered by the Court of Québec to pay a fine of $12,500. The company pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Species at Risk Act. The charge stems from actions that damaged or destroyed Bank Swallow nests. The fine will be paid to the Receiver General for Canada.

In June 2022, Environment and Climate Change Canada enforcement officers received a report from Quebec’s Ministère des Forêts, de la Faune et des Parcs indicating that a Bank Swallow colony was threatened by excavation work carried out below their nests in a sandpit. Officers proceeded to the site and found that heavy machinery was removing material at the base of a sand wall where swallows were nesting. At the site, the officers saw the walls collapse, destroying the Bank Swallow nests in the process.

The investigation determined that Les Entreprises Énia Lafontaine was responsible for the work done that damaged or destroyed Bank Swallow nests. In so doing, they committed an offence under section 33 of the Species at Risk Act.

Quick facts

• The Bank Swallow is an endangered migratory bird whose Canadian population has declined by 98 percent over the past 40 years. This insectivorous bird is particularly attracted to sand and gravel pits, piles of sand and earth, and sandy embankments at the edges of water bodies and paths.
• Bank Swallows nest in burrows dug into exposed earth, primarily on the banks of ponds and rivers, but also in sand pits and gravel pits and at some construction sites where there are vertical embankments of earth. Individuals and companies can protect these birds by avoiding activities that could damage, destroy, or disturb their nests.
• The Bank Swallow is a threatened wildlife species protected under the Species at Risk Act. The Bank Swallow is also a protected species under the Migratory Birds Convention Act, 1994 and its Regulations. According to the laws and their Regulations, anyone who kills, hunts, captures, injures, or harasses a migratory bird or damages, destroys, removes, or disturbs their nests, eggs, or residence (burrow) without a permit or regulatory authorization is committing a punishable offence.

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