Executive summary

This report is the final step in the comprehensive review process of the events leading to the discharge of untreated wastewater into the St. Lawrence River by the City of Montreal between November 11 and 14, 2015. This review is one of the four conditions imposed on the City of Montreal in the order issued by the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) under subsection 37(2) of the Fisheries Act on November 9, 2015.

The purpose of the comprehensive review conducted by ECCC was to look at intergovernmental communications, particularly the information shared and exchanged between the City of Montreal, the ministère du Développement durable, de l’Environnement et de la Lutte contre les changements climatiques (MDDELCC), and ECCC before the events took place. Engagement and consultation with the Mohawk and Abenaki Indigenous communities were also examined as part of the review.

The review process took place between December 15, 2015 and March 31, 2016. The process began with preliminary information meetings for Indigenous communities, followed by bilateral meetings between representatives of ECCC, the City of Montreal, MDDELCC, and the Indigenous communities concerned. It ended with a workshop attended by most of the participants involved in the review process.

During the process, the City of Montreal indicated there was still some confusion regarding the federal regulatory regime governing the planned discharge of untreated wastewater in the context of major maintenance work on wastewater treatment systems. For their part, the Indigenous communities’ representatives pointed out that their communities had not been properly consulted before the discharge occurred.

The participants in the review process suggested that the authorities involved in such projects, in this case the City of Montreal, MDDELCC, and ECCC, should make better use of existing communications mechanisms to share information on similar situations in the future. The participants also felt that these authorities should pay special attention to the timely dissemination of relevant information to Indigenous communities so the communities can determine whether a project would adversely affect their ancestral or treaty rights.

The comprehensive review process has identified eight recommendations. ECCC is responsible for carrying out all the recommendations, some of which will require the collaboration of the Quebec government and the City of Montreal:

Intergovernmental communications

• Put in place a new collaborative structure between ECCC and MDDELCC to facilitate discussions surrounding major projects.
• Strengthen the use of existing communications mechanisms between the various orders of government.
• Share scientific expertise and involve other partners where possible.
• Clarify the scope and application of the Wastewater Systems Effluent Regulations and the Fisheries Act with regard to planned discharges of untreated wastewater by municipalities.

Engagement and consultation of Indigenous groups

• Initiate discussions between ECCC and the Secrétariat aux affaires autochtones du Québec (SAA) to better understand what, in this instance, led to differing approaches on the duty to consult, to identify common observations with regard to this duty.
• Require the production of an Indigenous community consultation plan when section 37 of the Fisheries Act is invoked with respect to maintenance projects on wastewater treatment systems.
• Commit to paying special attention to the dissemination of information to Indigenous communities.
• Ensure that the governments share, where possible, information at their disposal on Indigenous ancestral and treaty rights (established or potential) and, in keeping with the Crown’s legal duty, the findings of their analyses on the need to consult Indigenous communities.