About 300 people are protesting today to denounce the construction of a port in Cacouna, near Rivière-du-Loup, for shipping oil from the Alberta tar sands.
Under the Energy East pipeline project, the TransCanada company has already obtained the approval from Fisheries and Oceans Canada to conduct drilling in the marine area of Bas-Saint-Laurent.
About a dozen organizations planned the event, including Nature Québec, Greenpeace and the Quebec Association Against Air Pollution.
They say they want both Ottawa and Quebec to further analyze the project before allowing TransCanada to go forward.
Dangerous surveys
TransCanada is currently conducting seismic surveys in the Cacouna marine area to scan the seabed and identify where the port could be built.
This work would be carried out in May as belugas — an endangered species — will be breeding in this area of the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Protesters say that these geophysical surveys use devices that emit harmful sounds for belugas.
This preparatory work should allow the company to clarify its application to the National Energy Board.
The federal agency is responsible for evaluating the Energy East pipeline, which will transport more than one million barrels of oil per day to New Brunswick through Quebec by 2018.