In a modest house full of knick-knacks, on a farm along route 204, at the top of a hill, just outside Lac-Mégantic, Yolande Boulanger is pulling out a stack of sheets of paper.
She has collected no fewer than 250 signatures on a petition calling for the Quebec environmental consultation office (BAPE) to hold consultations on the Lac-Mégantic bypass railway project.
Conceived after the 2013 disaster that killed 47 people and flattened the town centre, the controversial project led by the federal government involves diverting the existing railway in a wide arc from east to west over a distance of 12.5 km, to prevent a similar disaster from happening again.
Estimated cost: over $1 billion, financed 60 per cent by Ottawa and 40 per cent by Quebec, for use by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPKC).
“All by myself, this little old lady, I collected 250 signatures, going for coffees at …