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The new federal minister of the environment and climate change, Catherine McKenna, appears to have unblocked the city of Montreal’s sewage stalemate.

The city will be allowed to dump 8 billion litres of sewage into the St. Lawrence River, provided it meets several conditions imposed by the federal government by Dec. 5, she announced Monday.

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Mayor Denis Coderre told reporters the city had no problem with the conditions, will comply with them quickly and begin the discharge within a matter of days. “We take the minister’s message positively,” he said.

In a conference call from Paris, McKenna called the solution “far from ideal,” but said a planned discharge before winter presented less risk for long-term environmental damage than an unforeseen one later.

“All I can say is, I inherited this file on the first day (as minister last week). Things were not conducted in a way I would have hoped for,” she said. “We did the best we could given the particular situation.”