Pay for the Magdalen Islands

Have you ever been to the Magdalen Islands? That’s wonderful. Probably the most beautiful place in Quebec. I’ve been there twice, I dream of going back…

But I fear that after this column, the Madelinots will force me to sleep in my tank¹.

The municipality of Îles-de-la-Madeleine has just adopted a “fee” of $30 per tourist, payable via the “Passe Archipel”², from May to October. Those who fail to pay are subject to a $1,000 fine.

Not $30 to access a bridge. Not $30 to get to a national park. No: $30 imposed on Quebecers to access a portion of Quebec territory.

The municipality of the Islands cites various problems linked to “mass tourism”, such as its waste management in summer, when the population of the archipelago doubles. The municipality must send its waste by boat and truck to Victoriaville. Complicated, expensive.

But the precedent is dismaying: there is no place in Quebec where Quebecers must pay to access a portion of territory. I have not seen any provincial elected official denounce this unusual measure.

I would add that you will have to register with the municipality to access the Islands. So, give your information to access, I repeat, Quebec territory! Never before seen, outside of a security or health emergency.

No Quebecer should pay to access Montreal, Saint-Tite or Old Quebec under the pretext of overtourism or otherwise. And there, a city decides that Quebecers will have to pay to access Quebec territory? It’s scandalous, it’s liberticidal.

Did I say that you will have to pay to access the Îles-de-la-Madeleine territory?

Oops, the mayor of the Islands, Antonin Valiquette, a shrewd person, would disagree with this formulation³ : “There is no one who will prevent you from entering the territory of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine if you have not taken your Archipel Pass,” he declared to the municipal council on April 9, “there is no one who will put you in prison if you are subject to verification leaving the Îles-de-la-Madeleine…”

Oh, the verification will be done when leaving the Islands, by ferry or by air! It is therefore not an impediment toenter to the Islands! And what’s more, offenders will not be thrown in prison: bonus!

Mayor Valiquette says he has “solid legal opinions” to price Quebecers who want to have access to a portion of Quebec territory. I hope that these opinions are more solid than the “arguments” that he used to a citizen who was worried about the legality of charging access to the Islands, still during the municipal council of April 9: he compared this tax on the right of way of the Confederation Bridge, which connects Prince Edward Island to the mainland…

No one “pays” to access Laval via the (private) Highway 25 bridge, coming from Montreal. We pay to take the bridge. Laval does not receive a cent from this passage. The nuance is super easy to understand, I assume that Mayor Valiquette is not an idiot, so I deduce that he is being histrionic.

But where the mayor of the Islands plays a dangerous game is when he talks about the user-pays principle: “We ask the visitor for a contribution, because we are on the territory, we impose a fee, an Archipelago Pass, we go there on the user-pays principle…”

If Mayor Valiquette wants to talk about the user-pays principle, we can. We can start with this fact: if we applied the user-pays principle to the Magdalen Islands, there wouldn’t be much in the Islands…

Because with a population of 12,000 people, the Magdalen Islands could not afford a hospital, an airport, a port, a main road, teachers, cops…

Not to mention dollars to tackle climate change⁠⁴ : these 32 million to secure Route 199, Mr. Mayor, are they paid by the 12,000 Madelinots? No, it’s paid by the Quebecers on whom you want to impose $30 entry, uh, exit fees…

As a Quebecer, I don’t want us to start pulling out the calculator to find out who is paying too much, enough or not enough, depending on the region. But if Mayor Valiquette comes out with his own, we can start doing calculations, but the people of the Islands will find that it is expensive, paying alone for the infrastructure that they use and that ALL Quebecers pay for.

I was talking about a dangerous precedent. I would like a civil liberties lawyer to test this unusual liberticidal Archipelago Pass which is based on these supposedly solid “legal opinions”. There is an existential case here for freedom of movement that needs to be tested.

And this precedent of liberticide is largely motivated by… the management of emptying? It’s to cry.

If the Îles-de-la-Madeleine can without problem impose an entry tax of $30 on Quebecers who want to access the Quebec territory of the Îles-de-la-Madeleine in the name of waste management and other environmental considerations, I I don’t see how Montreal would deprive itself of charging entry fees for Quebecers not residing in Montreal, in the name of the user-pays principle: is it up to me, a Montreal taxpayer, to pay for the potholes 450 (and 418 and 819) motorists?

Plus, it would be good for the environment… Fewer tanks in Montreal!

I’m kidding… But not as much as the mayor of the Islands.

The scandal here is not that a mayor makes a power trip by erecting barriers to entry into Quebec territory…

It is the deafening noise of the silence of our elected officials in Quebec.

1. Read the text “Other Games”

2. Read the text “Îles-de-la-Madeleine: visitors will have to pay a tourist fee of $30 starting next summer”

3. See the municipal council meeting of April 9

4. Read the text “More than 50 million invested to counter the erosion of the Magdalen Islands since 2018”