(Batiscan) “You’re not in the law, you’re in my house! », shouts a local owner on Batiscan beach at the end of May.
The journalist and the photographer from La Presse nevertheless walk in the area considered public. The “discovered” part of the beach located between the high water mark and the “water of the day” belongs to the Quebec state, the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, and the Ministry of the Environment confirmed to us. Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) by email.
“They confined me in the river in the 1990s,” argued the woman, who did not want to give her name. “We all paid, that’s why we want peace! »
“You’re in a wasp’s nest, do you realize that? », added a man who arrived in the meantime.
The tensions caused by this beach have been going on for years, and have been reported many times by the Mauricie media.
Last July, a resident of the municipality, Ani Müller, was approached by agents of the Sûreté du Québec (SQ) while she was at the water’s edge with a friend and their children, following the complaint from a resident.
Ms. Müller did not receive an infraction, but the episode relayed on social networks and by the media had a mobilizing effect. Citizens circulated a petition and created the Association for Citizen Accessibility to Batiscan Beach, a non-profit organization of which Ms. Müller became spokesperson.
The Rivières Foundation, which campaigns for access to water, got involved. While walking on the beach, its members realized “that there was a lot of construction and development in the flood zone.” “We delved into the records, we tried to understand,” confides the CEO of the Foundation, André Bélanger. The organization recently filed a complaint with the Ministry of the Environment for “potentially illegal work on the coast” (see other text).
The SQ, for its part, “did not [hand over] any offense reports or make any arrests during previous interventions” in the beach sector, Sergeant Éloïse Cossette told us in writing.
The SQ could be called upon to intervene “based on municipal regulations such as “disturbing the peace””.
On the other hand, “as for the various disputes (land boundaries, rights of neighboring owners and citizens, etc.), the problem has a civil aspect [civil law] which is not the responsibility of the police.”
Batiscan Beach appeared in the 1950s, when the federal government dumped sand from seaway dredging along the shore, east of the municipal wharf.
The river bed, which belongs to the Quebec state, then became “an immense embankment that the waters of the river no longer cover,” summarized a spokesperson for the Ministry of the Environment, Sophie Gauthier, by email.
The Quebec state therefore found itself the owner of this strip of backfilled sand, which allowed it to rent or sell lots.
“Our ministry has been regularizing these filled-in lands […] for over 30 years,” said Ms. Gauthier.
Some of the lots resulting from the backfilling are today classified as “private land following a demarcation report” or “under the authority of the MELCCFP”. The majority was, however, conceded by the State, shows a compilation from the ministry obtained through access to information.
“The regularizations carried out include only backfilled parts of the St. Lawrence River, the backfilling being limited to the limit at the high water [tide] altitude of the river,” clarified Ms. Gauthier.
The ministry’s compilation, however, shows that certain lots extend into the river, as local owners told us.
Do these routes take precedence over the public part of the shore?
“No, since the State remains the owner of the bed of the St. Lawrence River, up to the limit at the high water altitude (tides),” the ministry spokesperson replied.
“It must be understood that this limit is dynamic and likely to move over time depending on the natural phenomena of erosion and siltation, that is to say the accumulation of deposits (gravel, sand, silt or clay ),” writes Ms. Gauthier.
Batiscan beach is nevertheless bristling with billboards claiming the “private” nature of the beach, and prohibiting “loitering” as well as boats.
However, this is not the case for all local residents. Alexandre Gervais, for example, did not buy the backfilled lot in front of his house.
“The beach is public, I found that absurd,” he says. “I accept everyone on this plot of land,” assures Mr. Gervais, who is even a member of the board of directors of the Association for Citizen Accessibility.