FRONTENAC, Quebec — The town of Frontenac has voted in resounding fashion against the planned bypass to remove Canadian Pacific’s rail line from Lac-Mégantic, Quebec, but the results of the referendum apparently will not change the plans for the project.
The CBC reports 92% of those in the community of 1,600 who cast ballots in the Sunday, Feb. 19, referendum on the bypass project voted “no.” But, after lengthy negotiations, Canada’s Transport Minister, Omar Alghabra, announced earlier this month that that the government would begin the process of expropriating land — claiming it from the property owners through legal proceedings — saying “we must move forward” with the bypass project [see ”Canadian government begins process to acquire land …,” Trains News Wire, Feb. 14, 2023].
“We must not lose sight of the core objective, eliminating trains traveling through downtown Lac-Mégantic,” Alghabra said then.
The rail line already passes through part of Frontenac, but the bypass will relocate it to a different area in order to move the route north of Lac-Mégantic. Some 43 landowners in Frontenac will be affected, and have expressed concerns about the environmental impact, as well as concerns over low compensation for their land and how they will access property divided by the rail line.
They also feel the government has paid little attention to their concerns.
“Transport Canada doesn’t care at all for the human distress which this dossier has been causing,” Frontenac resident Roger Venne told the CBC.
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