Lac-Mégantic overview: Committee of the Whole—May 19, 2022
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Lac-Mégantic
Key data points
- On May 11, 2018, the Governments of Canada and Quebec announced the construction of a railway track that will bypass downtown Lac-Mégantic at an estimated cost of $133M
- The Government of Canada will fund 60% of the construction costs. As part of the construction of this bypass, the Government of Canada will need to acquire properties in Lac-Mégantic, Frontenac and Nantes
- For the construction of the bypass to proceed, the Government of Canada plans to acquire 105 parcels of land
- The property appraisal process began in the fall of 2019
- On October 22, 2021, the negotiation process began after offer letters were sent to the owners. This process will take several months to conclude
- On February 4, 2022, Transport Canada (TC) received a joint letter from the mayors of the 3 municipalities, notably requesting that the Government of Canada extend the negotiation period with property owners. On March 24, 2022, TC announced the granting of a 3-month extension of the negotiation period, giving property owners until August 12, 2022 to negotiate with Public Services and Procurement Canada (PSPC)
- However, even if mutual negotiations are concluded, legal action by the Fédération de L'Union des producteurs agricoles-Estrie currently prevents 36 landowners from selling their lands to the Government of Canada
- The hearing for this motion, which was scheduled on April 6, 2022, has been postponed to a later, undetermined date to allow the attorney general of Quebec to decide if he wishes to intervene in the case
- As of February 2022, 43 offers have been submitted
Rail bypass, reconstruction
- The Government of Canada is proceeding with an open, transparent and equitable process to acquire the properties needed to build the rail bypass
- Public Services and Procurement Canada is collaborating and communicating regularly with Transport Canada in order to move quickly on this file while ensuring a fair acquisition process for property owners
- Transport Canada has mandated PSPC to acquire the properties and to manage the technical contracts related to the acquisition process
- Therefore, PSPC is responsible for surveying and appraising the properties, meeting with the owners to explain the acquisition process, negotiating with them by mutual agreement when possible and, ultimately, implementing the expropriation process in the event of an impasse during the mutual negotiation process
- On August 26, 2020, AECOM, the consultant appointed to design a route for the bypass, submitted its final design development report
- PSPC received the final version of the route on May 28, 2021, with subsequent changes being received until December 14, 2021
- On May 25, 2021, federal parliamentarians unanimously passed a motion calling for work to be completed in 2023 in accordance with the schedule. On May 27, 2021, TC, as part of an agreement with Central Maine and Quebec Railway, committed to taking possession of the properties in the winter of 2022
- 2 virtual information sessions, organized by TC and attended by PSPC, were held in summer 2021 to inform the property owners that an expropriation process has become unavoidable