A Quebec company fined $75,000 for harming bank swallows, a threatened species

September 15, 2026 – Québec City, Quebec – Environment and Climate Change Canada

On September 14, 2026, the company Charles-Auguste Fortier Inc. was fined $75,000 by the Court of Québec. The excavation company pleaded guilty to one count of violating the Species at Risk Act. The charge stems from activities that harmed bank swallows. The fine will be paid to the Receiver General for Canada.

On May 30, 2024, an Environment and Climate Change Canada employee observed, near his workplace, grading work underway on a pile of sand where, just the day before, bank swallow burrows had been seen. The employee immediately notified the Department’s enforcement officers. That same day, officers went to the site, which was used to store material for municipal work.

Environment and Climate Change Canada’s investigation into this incident found that between May 29 and June 3, 2024, the company Charles-Auguste Fortier Inc. flattened the top of a pile of sand containing bank swallow burrows. The company had been informed of the requirements of the Species at Risk Act and made aware of the issue the previous year.

By harming one or more bank swallows, a wildlife species listed as threatened, the excavation company violated subsection 32(1) of the Species at Risk Act.

Quick facts

• The bank swallow is an endangered migratory bird whose Canadian population has declined by approximately 98% since 1970. This insectivorous bird prefers sand pits and quarries, piles of sand and earth, and sandy embankments along the edges of water bodies and roads.
• Bank swallows nest in burrows dug into exposed earth, primarily on the banks of ponds and rivers, but also in sand pits and quarries 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. It 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 its nest, eggs, or residence (occupied burrow) without a permit or regulatory authorization is committing a punishable offence.

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