Quebec homeowners say Ottawa must address decades of erosion caused by ship traffic

A group of people that lives in towns along Montreal's South Shore is urging the federal government to counter the effects of shoreline erosion.

Every year, 100-year-old Angélique Beauchemin watches more of her land crumble into the St. Lawrence River.

From her home along a busy stretch of river in Verchères, Que., on Montreal’s South Shore, she watches waves from passing ships crash into the rock wall at the base of her property, sweeping chunks away and eating into the unprotected banks from below.

The higher parts of her land, she said, are sinking an inch or two a year as they slope ever more steeply toward the river. While she’s not a scientist, she says her biggest fear is that one day there will be a landslide and the white house at the top of the hill where she’s lived for decades will tumble down.

“It could go completely,” she said in a recent interview.

Despite her age, she made the steep hike down the slope to the river, wearing a straw hat and sunglasses, with the help of a cane. At the bottom, she pointed to places where the water has carved bays into the shore since her last visit.

“This is even worse than it was,” she said. “It’s not reassuring.”

Beauchemin says the area below the wall used to be a small sandy beach where people could swim. Now, she feels the rest of the rock wall — along with the remnants of the concrete sidewalk that used to allow residents to wander from town to town — will wash away before the end of the summer.

Beauchemin is part of a group of people who live in towns along Montreal’s South Shore who are urging the federal government to counter the effects of shoreline erosion that they say is affecting animals and vegetation and damaging their land.