ID: 1526
Presenting Author: Emmanuelle Bouchard-Bastien
Session: 520 - Connecting infrastructure and IA – Assessing impacts in contested planning
Status: pending
After the Lac-Mégantic (Qc, Canada) train accident, a bypass project intended to reroute the train outside the town has become controversial. What explains these changes in public attitudes?
In July 2013, a freight train derailed in downtown Lac-Mégantic (Qc, Canada), resulting in 47 fatalities, an estimated spill of six million liters of crude oil, and the destruction of 83 buildings. In the aftermath of this tragedy, a 12-kilometer rail bypass project was announced. The primary objective of this project was to reduce the population’s exposure to the transportation of hazardous materials by rerouting the railway outside the downtown core. Currently, as the project’s authorization process remains ongoing, a significant number of individuals and groups now oppose the initiative, citing environmental, quality of life, and safety concerns.
This presentation is based on a study commissioned by the regional public health authority, which combines mixed data collected ten years after the accident. It will focus on the shifts in public attitudes toward this infrastructure project, which was initially perceived as a unifying initiative. Key milestones in the project’s impact assessment process will be presented to trace how a project initially intended to support the recovery of the population has, over time, become a source of controversy. Subsequently, the presentation will highlight specific issues related to the project's environmental assessment, including the overlap between Quebec and Canadian regulatory procedures.
Finally, the aim of the presentation is to foster a discussion on the importance of considering contextual factors in the environmental assessment of infrastructure projects, as well as to reflect on promising approaches for managing similar cases.
Emmanuelle Bouchard-Bastien holds a PhD in Anthropology from Université Laval. She has been a scientific advisor at the Institut national de santé publique du Québec (INSPQ) since 2013.
Coauthor 1: Magalie Canuel
Coauthor 2: Sabrina Doyon