Calumet AI

Category: Emergency Services

  • Quebec’s largest landfill gets emergency expansion, engineers go on strike, provinces assist SOPFEU with forest fires

    Quebec’s largest landfill gets emergency expansion approved

    Last week Quebec’s government approved the temporary expansion of the Lachenaie landfill in Terrebonne, just north of Montreal, CBC News reported. 

    The facility, which takes roughly a third of Montreal’s trash, is the province’s largest and received emergency approval on June 30 to accept 1.2 million tonnes more waste, to be piled higher rather than enlarging its existing footprint. 

    The company that operates the site, Complexe Enviro Connexions, is seeking to permanently expand the site to extend its lifespan to 2043, though the environmental assessment remains ongoing. 

    “This is a transitional and temporary measure which, environmentally speaking, remains subject to the same existing obligations, particularly regarding bio-gas management, odour control, leachate treatment and avian fauna monitoring,” company spokesperson Maxime Doyon told Radio-Canada.

    The report goes on to state that the city of Montreal has fallen short of its waste reduction goals, diverting just under 50 per cent of its waste from landfill, compared to its stated goal of 70 per cent. 

    Government engineers go on indefinite strike

    As of Monday morning, nearly 2,000 engineers are on strike across the province, La Presse Canadienne reported. This comes on the heels of more limited strikes on Thursdays, evenings and weekends by the Association professionnelle des ingénieurs du gouvernement du Québec (APIGQ). The union’s members work for several government departments, primarily the Ministry of Transport, but also the Ministry of Natural Resources, Environment and Municipal Affairs. Union president Marc-André Martin said that around 300 members were working to ensure essential services are maintained during the strike, which will impact infrastructure projects across Quebec. The APIGQ’s collective agreement expired in March 2023.

    “We would like to remind everyone that we have reached agreements with 99 per cent of public and parapublic sector employees. Given the ongoing negotiations, we will not be making any further comments,” Quebec’s Treasury Board stated about the situation. 

    Several provinces assist Quebec with forest fires

    Several provinces have sent assistance to Quebec’s forest fire fighting agency, SOPFEU, as it battles forest fires across the province, CBC News reported. 

    Sixty-three firefighters from British Columbia arrived on July 3 to assist, followed by 21 from New Brunswick and 17 from Prince Edward Island the following day. They will supplement Quebec’s 640 forest firefighting personnel already on the ground.

    According to SOPFEU’s website, as of July 6, there were 11 active fires in Quebec’s southern protection zone, and 188 active fires in the province’s north region. 

    “The arrival of these firefighters will enable SOPFEU to handle this significant increase in workload,” SOPFEU wrote in a statement.

  • Allumette Island fire destroys home

    Allumette Island fire destroys home

    Pontiac Ouest and Waltham fire departments spent Saturday fighting a raging house fire on L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, which ultimately destroyed the home.

    Pontiac Ouest fire chief Glynn Fleury said his department was called to the residence on chemin Pembroke in the community of Demers-Centre at 9:48 a.m. on July 4. 

    He said he called in the Waltham department for support as the day’s high temperatures made the job especially difficult.

    “In 30-degree weather, it doesn’t take long for a firefighter to get exhausted, so it’s better to have more bodies than not enough,” he said.

    Despite the extra support, it took the firefighters eight hours to finally extinguish the flames.

    “We controlled it there, but if the wind would have been blowing in a different direction, structures behind it could have been seriously threatened, it could have involved other buildings,” Fleury said.

    He said both residents were home at the time of the fire, one of them outside and the other inside. The man, who Fleury said had suffered some minor burns, went to hospital for treatment but was later released. 

    Fleury said while an investigation is still underway into the cause of the fire, the owners said they believed it was started when a solar panel plugged into a generator “arced out”.

    “That’s not confirmed by the investigators yet, that’s just hearsay of what the owners told us,” Fleury said. 

  • Ontario man dies after single-vehicle crash in Litchfield

    Ontario man dies after single-vehicle crash in Litchfield

    A young man from Ontario died in hospital following a single-vehicle crash on Highway 148 in Litchfield Sunday afternoon (July 5). 

    Emergency crews were called to the scene, near 1198 Highway 148 at 4:30 p.m. 

    Sûreté du Québec spokesperson Sgt. Marc Tessier said Monday that the driver, 21, was transported to hospital in critical condition and was pronounced dead later that day. The other occupant of the vehicle was taken to hospital with non-life-threatening injuries. 

    The road was closed temporarily on Sunday while police investigated the scene. Tessier added police have yet to confirm the reason the car went off the road, but said they do not believe speed or alcohol to be factors in the crash.