Longueuil, Que., plans to complete road through wetland where endangered frog lives

A road that was already about 75 per cent built, levelling a lush wetland to give commuters an alternative route in Longueuil, Que., is finally going to be completed after the project was halted in November 2021.

The municipal construction project, more than a decade in the making, was brought to a screeching halt by federal decree to protect the western chorus frog, a threatened species under the Species at Risk Act.

But in a recent interview on Radio-Canada's Le 15-18, Longueuil Mayor Catherine Fournier said, after an analysis, it was impossible to restore the natural habitat back to the way it was before the road construction began.

Restoration is what environmental groups have been calling for. Instead, she said, the city is looking to move forward with the $2.6-million road, which is supposed to connect R-100 Street to Béliveau Boulevard — creating a straight shot between de la Savane Road, where the Saint-Hubert Airport is found, and Jacques-Cartier Boulevard East, at the Pierre Boucher Hospital.

The city's previous administration touted the project as something residents have been demanding, saying it will have bike paths and sidewalks.

Longueuil built a wildlife corridor under the new road, costing the city nearly $1 million, and there's a landscaped traffic circle on R-100 Street that will serve little purpose without the connection to Béliveau.

Construction had begun before Fournier was elected in November 2021. Once in office, she ordered the city cease its legal opposition to an injunction requested by environmental groups to stop the work to extend Béliveau Boulevard.

The federal government soon enacted an emergency order to protect the habitat of the chorus frog, following a similar measure in 2016, which covered La Prairie and parts of Candiac and Saint-Philippe in the Montérégie region.

The decree outlawed draining the soil or altering surface water — something that already happened when crews installed a sewer system, drainage ditches and levelled the land in preparation of asphalt.

That wetland, located between residential development and farmland, is directly adjacent to a 260-hectare nature preserve known as the Boisé du Tremblay.

In that wetland lives chorus frogs. The call of the male western chorus frog sounds like a fingernail being drawn along a metallic comb and it can be heard up to a kilometre away. It's a sound that used to be much more common in the region.

According to Quebec's Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, 20 per cent of the chorus frog's habitat is located in the wetland, making it the most important site the species occupies in the province.

Mayor Fournier said the "2.0" version of the road project includes several measures aimed at protecting the frog's habitat, such as constructing a narrower boulevard, implementing new wildlife crossings and refraining from real estate development along the boulevard.

This project was developed in collaboration with teams from Environment Canada, the Quebec Ministry of the Environment and the Montreal Urban Community, added Fournier.

The next step is to obtain the necessary permits to resume construction work, she said.