Brenda O’Farrell
The Advocate

A study advocating for the dezoning of all remaining agricultural land in Laval to make way for 70,000 residential housing units put forward by the Montreal Economic Institute last month is being panned as “ridiculous,” “ill-considered” and “far-fetched,” and fails to grasp the pressures bearing down on agricultural producers and the basic tenants of sustainable development.

“It lacks understanding,” said Martin Caron, president of the Union des producteurs agricoles, in an interview during a conference in Trois-Rivières last month.

“Governments have 98 per cent of Quebec territory to resolve the housing crisis,” Caron said. “Why attack the 2 per cent dedicated to feeding us?”

The MEI put forward a “simple view” that fails to accurately reflect the issues at play when it comes to land management, food production and sustainable development, Caron added.

The MEI looked at land use in Laval, where 30 per cent of the territory of the island north of Montreal is zoned for agricultural use. This represents 70.5 square kilometres of land, or just over 17,420 acres.

“Laval is a case in point: Here we have a large area, close to our metropolis, that could accommodate tens of thousands of additional households if it were allowed to reach its full potential,” said study author Gabriel Giguère, a senior policy analyst at the MEI.

If the farmland in Laval is dezoned and the same population density is applied, the MEI says 70,000 new housing units could be built, “accommodating a total of 181,000 people,” a statement from the MEI claims. “That’s as much housing as exists in the entire city of Lévis, the seventh most populous municipality in Quebec,” the statement continues.

“It’s ridiculous,” said Colleen Thorpe, executive director of Équiterre, a Canadian non-profit that operates in Quebec that advocates for transitions toward an ecological and just society, including many issues involving agricultural production and consumer needs.

Urbanization needs to prioritize areas that Thorpe calls “under used,” where housing densification can be increased and stay away from vital agricultural land.

“The housing crisis is a pressing reality, but it’s dangerous to believe that the solution lies in destroying our agricultural lands,” said Audrey Lemaire, vice-president of the UPA’s Outaouais-Laurentides federation and a dairy farmer in St. Jérôme, north of Laval.

The federation labelled the study as simply being “far-fetched.”

“With the challenges we face in feeding future generations, it’s essential to recognize that our agricultural lands play a crucial role in preserving biodiversity,” said dairy farmer Stéphane Alary, president of the Outaouais-Laurentides federation.

The regional UPA federation said that in 2023, 60 applications to dezone farmland in Laval were filed with the Commission de protection du territoire agricole. The requests illustrate the “relentless pressure exerted by urban development in agricultural zones,” the federation claims. In the past decades Laval has seen tremendous population growth.

The federation calls on the MEI to rethink its proposals and focus on solutions that promote the densification of existing urban areas, while respecting and protecting what it refers to as “our precious agricultural heritage.”

“Building new housing at the expense of agricultural lands is a simplistic and short-sighted approach,” the federation stated. “Such a solution risks creating more problems than it solves, exacerbating our dependence on food imports and reducing our resilience in the face of future crises.”

Even a spokesperson for Vivre en ville, a Quebec-wide organization advocating for sustainable community development panned the MEI study.

“It makes no sense,” said Jeanne Robin, a spokesperson for the group, explaining that the general population needs to understand that agricultural land in Quebec is not limitless.

“The affordable housing crisis is a complex challenge that demands creative and sustainable solutions,” the Outaouais-Laurentides federation stated.

“The region’s agricultural land is among the most fertile in Quebec, offering optimal conditions for quality agriculture,” the federation’s statement continued. “Citizens benefit from peri-urban agriculture, which gives them access to fresh, top-quality produce sold directly by producers. Protecting these lands from urban expansion is crucial to our collective ability to feed future generations.”

The MEI study comes as the provincial Agriculture Ministry prepares to unveil the results of its year-long consultation in a lead up to its awaited overhaul of the laws that govern the protection of farmland in the province. In May, the ministry issued orientations for land management and development, which have been widely seen as being more flexible when it comes to agricultural zoning, while leaning toward giving MRCs more power when it comes to framing agricultural activities.

Meanwhile, at the federal level, a Senate report was published in June that many in the agricultural sector believe could have a long-lasting impact on the future of growing food in this country. It included a key landmark recommendation calling on government to designate soil as a “strategic national asset.”