Q-2, r. 35 - Protection Policy for Lakeshores, Riverbanks, Littoral Zones and Floodplains

Updated to 1 April 2018

This document has official status.

chapter Q-2, r. 35

Protection Policy for Lakeshores, Riverbanks, Littoral Zones and Floodplains

Environment Quality Act

(chapter Q-2, s. 2.1).

PREAMBLE

Lakeshores, riverbanks, littoral zones and floodplains are critical to the survival of the ecological and biological components of watercourses and bodies of water. In keeping with its desire to grant them adequate, minimum protection, the Gouvernement du Québec adopted the Politique de protection des rives, du littoral et des plaines inondables on 22 December 1987, acting on the recommendation of the Minister of the Environment pursuant to section 2.1 of the Environment Quality Act (chapter Q-2).

In 1991, the Government broadened the application of the Policy to cover all watercourses in Québec. The Policy was revised in 1996 to address various problems that had been encountered in implementing it. In order to enable the adoption of measures better suited to objectives pursued, the new Policy among other things allowed regional county municipalities and urban communities to submit a management plan for its lakeshores, riverbanks or littoral zones for approval and to adopt special protection measures departing wholly or in part from the measures set out in the Policy.

Although the Policy seeks to clarify the types of activity that may or may not be carried on in the targeted environments, the management plan mechanism enables allowance to be made for certain special circumstances, in consideration of the quality of the environment or the degree to which the environment has been artificialized. Strict enforcement of the Policy in such circumstances may not always be realistic, making it necessary to adopt different measures while nevertheless continuing to ensure adequate protection, enhancement and, if need be, rehabilitation of riparian zones.

The Policy needs to be further revised to enhance its content so as to more adequately protect high-velocity floodplain zones, to expand the scope of application of floodplain management plans and to restate the measures in the Agreement respecting flood risk mapping applied to floodplain preservation entered into on 7 September 1994 with the Government of Canada.

This Policy provides a minimal prescriptive framework; it does not prevent the various government and municipal authorities concerned, according to their respective jurisdictions, from adopting additional protection measures in response to special circumstances.

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