Quebec's raw sewage dumping extended until 2040: Liberals grant 20 year extension on treatment plant rule
Even under a new environment minister, Liberals are continuing their party policy of letting their favourite province dump untreated human waste into their drinking water sources and fish habitats. All the while calling carbon pollution and punishing Alberta and Canadian families because of it.
The Liberals are going to allow raw sewage, disposed medications, and tampon applicators into our waterways for at least another two decades. And some places can dump the sewage forever, I guess.
Blacklock's Reporter has the news today behind their paywall:
Minister Wilkinson’s department in its notice of amendments to Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations said it would give municipalities until 2040 to comply with rules introduced by the previous Conservative cabinet in 2012. Regulations require that sewage plants meet federal standards for fish-killing effluent like chlorine, and conduct "acutely lethal" tests to guard safeguard habitat. "Acute lethality" is defined as sewage that at 100 percent concentration would kill half the rainbow trout in a stream over a ninety-six hour period.
Cities, towns and hamlets in Québec, Nunavut, Northwest Territories, Yukon and communities north of the 54th parallel in Newfoundland and Labrador are already exempt. Amendments would give all others another twenty years to comply.
Wait. What? So some places, including Quebec, never have to comply at all? WATCH ABOVE and let me take you through this:
This 20-year extension to upgrade sewage systems isn’t an exception to Liberal clean and green environmental policies. This is the Liberal clean and green environmental policy. Actually as far as actual environmental impact goes - good or bad - this is the Liberal flagship environmental policy. Just dump your turds.
Since 2013, Canadian cities and provinces have flushed 900 billion litres - almost a trillion litres - of raw sewage into Canada’s waterways. And the Liberals have been in charge since 2015 so the majority of that dumping has been on their watch and, as Blacklock’s pointed out Conservatives tried to fix this back in 2012.
One of Catherine McKenna’s first jobs as the previous environment minister was to sign off on a massive sewage dump by Montreal. It was a two billion litre dump that made international headlines. What an embarrassment.
Look at this from the next year, 2016 (courtesy CBC):
Quebec's Environment Ministry says it did not authorize the dump of 8,000 tonnes of raw sewage by the City of Saint-Hyacinthe that experts and local officials believe led to the deaths of thousands of fish in the Yamaska River.
Jump ahead to 2018 (courtesy Global):
The repairs will take place over the course of six weeks but they will only be releasing the sewage over the course of an eight-day period. During that time, the city will dump the equivalent of eight Olympic pools of untreated water every day.
Longueuil says they’ve obtained permits from both the Quebec and Canadian governments to proceed with the dump.
Remember, these federal and Quebec politicians signing off on these gross sewage dumps are the same ones who want to block Alberta pipelines because one might leak (but probably won’t) and who think that carbon dioxide is dangerous deadly pollution that kills the planet.
We should be taxing Quebec sewage dumps and not our SUVs. At least it’s real pollution.
Sheila Gunn Reid
Chief Reporter
Sheila Gunn Reid is the Alberta Bureau Chief for Rebel News and host of the weekly The Gunn Show with Sheila Gunn Reid. She's a mother of three, conservative activist, and the author of best-selling books including Stop Notley.