The Magdalen Islands' forgotten, decaying nature reserve
Brion Island strewn with garbage, buildings crumbling
When Sébastien Cyr took a group of birdwatchers by zodiac to his beloved Brion Island in May, he discovered the dock that once welcomed boaters was gone.
That was only the first in a series of nasty surprises for the trained biologist who works as a tour guide.
"[There was] lots of garbage all around the harbour," Cyr said of the island located in the Magdalen Islands archipelago.
Cyr says the unique natural environment of the island, which has been a protected nature reserve under provincial law since 1988, is being trashed and its facilities are deteriorating badly.
Cyr worked on the island as a student in 1999, informing visitors, checking their permits and ensuring they respected the landscape.
A 'dump'
But funding for staffing and upkeep of the island's facilities has dropped off since 2012, he said.
The current state of the island shocked both him and his tour group.
"What we saw is not an ecological reserve. It's a dump," he said.
Only the remnants of a dock are left by the harbour. A building once stood nearby that sheltered an engine to haul boats. It has completely fallen apart, its wooden planks lying in a toppled heap.
A welcome centre once contained a cookhouse and acted as a shelter for guides and rustic campers when it rained. Now its roof is leaking and its wood is rotting. It's speckled with mould and its paint is peeling off.
Cyr fears it will be beyond repair if nothing is done in the next year or two. "The building is dangerous to enter," he said.
Quebec contemplating reinvestment
Ninety-five per cent of the island is part of an ecological reserve, which is the province's strictest category of protected area.
It is also one of the rare ecological reserves in Quebec that allows the public to enter the territory for educational purposes, though people are supposed to have a permit and be accompanied by a guide.
However, Cyr says people from the inhabited islands of the Magdalen archipelago can easily get to Brion Island — and do. "Here, everybody has a boat," he said.
The signs that are supposed to mark off the protected site have fallen down.
Some local seal hunters have also started hunting illegally on the island. Other seal hunters have called for the province to lift the island's protections.
At first, the Environment Ministry said it was considering their request, but Environment Minister David Heurtel told Quebec city's Le Soleil newspaper in April that the proposal had been discarded.
The province now says it is analysing different scenarios about its activities and involvement on the island.
The Environment Ministry's communications department said in an email to the CBC that it is "well aware of the state of the buildings."
It said an analysis of investment options is underway. The province is also conducting a pilot project with a tour company, Excursions en Mer, during the 2016 season in order to restart the educational component of the island.
With files from Line Danis