If we look beyond Laval at the whole St. Lawrence river system, 85% to 87% of wetlands have disappeared. There are 15% remaining. If we continue to eliminate them to make room for development and if we don't want to integrate them, that will have a major impact on water quality and on renewing our water resources. You just need to look at the statistics for the Rivière des Prairies and the Mille-Îles River. This year, the flow rate went down to almost 34 m3 or 35 m3 of water per second. I was talking about an order in council that was adopted by the Government of Quebec in 2010. The Mille-Îles River reached 9 m3 to 10 m3. When there is high water in the spring, the flow rate can reach up to 800 m3 or 900 m3 of water per second. That started in 2001.
Wetlands are affected by climate change, deforestation, the channeling of streams, the filling in of the shores, the artificialization of the banks and the loss of flood plains along the waterways. Flood plains are another type of wetland. So that has a major impact on the regularization of the water level, water filtration, groundwater recharge, groundwater and water tables. If we keep mishandling them, the biodiversity is going to disappear. They are the richest environments in southern Quebec. The same goes for all the provinces in Canada.