98 per cent of quebec’s shorelines aren’t accessible. this alliance wants to change that

a newly formed nature alliance in quebec is on a quest to restore public access to natural spaces, an issue it says quebecers have been confronting for years. the creation of alliance pour l'accès à la nature was announced a day after a report out of montreal confirmed 98 per cent of quebec's shorelines are inaccessible to the public, mainly due to privatization. the alliance is asking the province to amend part of its civil code so owners interested in granting free access to waterways on their properties can do so without being held liable in the event of injury."it's really the first step we can take in the short term," said alexandra gilbert, general manager of réseau plein air québec. "the idea is to give landowners an incentive by reassuring those who already allow people to cross their property or access their shoreline."the alliance includes municipalities, actors from the public health sector, an indigenous community, environmental groups and sports and recreation organizations, among others. "we all agreed that action needed to be taken," gilbert said, adding that there are barriers to accessing natural spaces in quebec that extend beyond water. "these are issues that have been well known for years." the final version of the report — l’accès aux eaux publiques du québec — was published monday, a year after a preliminary version came out. the research aimed to clarify the extent to which quebec waters have become inaccessible both in terms of viewing and use."everyone has some experience of what it was like when they were young, how it changed as they grew up and what it's like today," said sébastien rioux, co-author of the report and professor in the department of geography at université de montréal, who is also canada research chair in the political economy of food and wellbeing."water is public in theory, but in practice it's largely privatized," rioux said. he explained that he stumbled on the issue while doing other research. "i realized that it had already been identified from a legal standpoint back in the 1960s and ’70s," he said. "people had described the problem, but nobody had any idea how extensive it actually was."rioux spent the past two years working on the report alongside université du québec à montréal geography professor rodolphe gonzalès. the results reveal that less than two per cent of the 48,000 kilometres of shoreline analyzed in quebec is accessible and that nearly 70 per cent is privatized. in 75 per cent of municipalities, less than one per cent is accessible. additionally, at least half of the province's lakes and waterways are more than 95 per cent privatized. forty per cent of lakes are completely blocked off by private property.

the key tension for rioux is that quebec recognizes the right to use water, "but on the other hand, no corresponding right of access has been established." "when privatization levels are this high, very little remains accessible," he said. emmanuel laferrière, general manager of canot kayak québec, said his group experiences access issues first-hand."places where we used to be able to launch are no longer accessible," he said. that's sometimes due to privatization, and sometimes due to cohabitation issues between property owners and the public. in some cases, tensions are specifically driven by the fact that there are so few public areas left, everyone is forced into the same locations, laferrière said. "another factor is that some private landowners who previously allowed access eventually realized, 'wait a minute, if i let people cross my property and they get injured, i could be held liable,'" he said.that's why the alliance wants those owners — whether private citizens or municipalities — to be able to provide access without legal barriers."it’s essential, because there are many willing landowners," said andré bélanger, general manager of fondation rivières. "quebecers are generally generous; they want to allow access, but right now they do so at their own risk."bélanger said quebec is about 40 years behind other places in the world in terms of finding solutions. "we looked at regulatory approaches in other countries and realized that in scotland, france, new zealand, the scandinavian countries, the united states, and even ontario, solutions already exist," he said, adding that what makes the issue so complicated is "that you can't easily go backwards" when so much land has become private.in some countries, the public can walk across private land for recreational purposes without needing permission from the landowner, under certain conditions and with certain safeguards, bélanger said."it can simply mean going to the edge of a cliff or the end of a property to have a beautiful view of the water," rioux explained. "one of the realities here is that cottages are often very close to the water, which also creates its own set of challenges. ... clearly, a problem of this scale can’t be solved with a single universal solution applied uniformly across quebec." that's why the alliance is also calling for the creation of a "comprehensive initiative to establish a genuine national policy on access to nature," according to its website."this policy should be grounded in fundamental principles that are reflected across legislation, public policy, and the actions of both the provincial government and municipalities, and should include clear national targets and performance indicators."

gilbert pointed out that in addition to providing all the obvious health benefits, access to nature is essential as the province faces increasingly hot summers. "many vulnerable people don’t necessarily have access to cooling spaces," she said. quebec's justice ministry did not respond to questions about a possible amendment to the civil code, but bélanger said the government has seemed open to finding solutions in the past.the alliance has a pre-written form on its website, alliancenature.ca, that it encourages citizens to send to their mnas.kthomas@postmedia.com