(Quebec) “All we want is a referendum. »
Dany Janvier created a Facebook page the day after the announcement last November of the TES Canada project, to oppose this hydrogen plant in Shawinigan which would be powered by the company’s own wind farms, in the neighboring municipalities, and by solar panels.
“It didn’t make any sense, everything was far-fetched,” he remembers of this press conference.
According to him, a referendum must be held throughout the MRC of Mékinac on this project, but municipal elected officials refuse.
For the Legault government, TES Canada constitutes one of the key pieces of the decarbonization of Quebec, since it would provide hydrogen as a substitute for hydrocarbons in industrial processes and heavy transport.
Since last November, Dany Janvier has been on a crusade against TES Canada, with the 1,300 people who follow his Facebook page, but also, in his opinion, with the majority of the population of the two MRC de la Mauricie which will be affected, Mékinac and des Chenaux. .
More than 1,600 people signed a petition submitted to the National Assembly and a group demonstrated along the parade route of the famous Saint-Tite western festival.
No less than 130 wind turbines could stand facing the wind in the coming years, in this area where there are currently none. The MRC de Mékinac submitted a draft regulation to govern their installation, but it was refused by the government of Quebec and it will have to submit a new version.
“We find it quite serious,” commented Dany Janvier in a telephone interview with La Presse Canadienne broadcast on Sunday.
“The dice are loaded in advance, it’s not a question of conspiracy,” he assures. The mayors have the same speech, there is no respect from the population. […] It’s a project that we’re trying to force down our throats. »
He accuses municipal elected officials of being “incredibly lax” regarding the arrival of possible wind farms.
In the opinion of Mr. Janvier, who says he relays the opinions of experts, these wind turbines threaten groundwater by being located too close to habitual areas. They would emit unacceptable levels of noise. Among other things, it requires comparative data from other wind farms.
“They will come and crush the landscape,” he added, in a long indictment.
Behind what he considers to be an apparent complacency lie conflicts of interest of elected officials, he suspects, without however providing concrete proof.
Municipal councilors own land that could accommodate wind turbines and therefore receive royalties, when it is not their relatives, he suggests, adding that everyone knows each other in these small municipalities.
“Our elected officials are all in the same clan, they only see the check” for royalties which will be paid to the municipality by the developers, he said.
He attacks in particular the mayor of Saint-Adelphe, Paul Labranche, re-elected without interruption for 24 years.
“It’s not good, it smacks of a conflict of interest,” accused Mr. Janvier.
In an interview with The Canadian Press previously, the mayor maintained his duty of reserve and refused to speak for or against the project.
Elected officials argue that undecideds and supporters fear to speak out and are silenced by aggressive opponents who intimidate them.
Dany Janvier maintains that this is not the case. On the contrary, it is the opponents of the project who suffer from the “aggressive tactics” of the supporters.
“It’s the Wild West, there are threats… there were some who wanted to fight with me,” he said.
He is categorical. The current municipal elected officials do not have the legitimacy to decide the issue, since they were elected before the announcement of the project, and a referendum is therefore necessary.
In addition, we must close the door to this “privatization” of energy and this “false decarbonization” carried out by two influential families from Mauricie, he denounces, and he names the Chrétiens and Desmarais: the co-founder of TES Canada is France Chrétien Desmarais, daughter of former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien and wife of André Desmarais, of Power Corporation of Canada. “No one believes in this hydrogen factory,” concludes Dany Janvier.
The Mauricie Project of TES Canada
- A 4 billion project.
- A hydrogen factory, wind farms, and a solar panel park.
- The construction of the facilities is expected to create 1,000 jobs and subsequently operation will require the hiring of 200 workers.
- Park of 130 wind turbines, over 70 hectares, distributed in 12 municipalities located in 2 MRC.
- Each wind turbine will produce 5.6 megawatts to 7 megawatts.
- Plant power supply: 800 megawatts from wind turbines; 200 megawatts from solar panels; 150 megawatts from Hydro-Québec.
- Factory production: 68,000 tonnes of hydrogen per year, to supply the Quebec market.
- The plant is expected to begin operations in 2028.
- Main customer: Énergir, which will use it to produce around a fifth of its “renewable natural gas” (RNG) by 2030, or 115 million cubic meters. The process for making RNG requires carbon dioxide and therefore recovers greenhouse gases (GHG).
- Hydrogen can be used in several industrial processes, in the fields of refining, steel and fertilizers.
- It can also be used as a fuel to replace diesel or fuel oil when electricity or batteries cannot be a substitute, in heavy transport over long distances, due to the limited capacity of batteries.
- The quantity of hydrogen produced by the Mauricie Project for heavy transport could power between 2000 and 3000 trucks. This would make it possible to replace more than 140 million liters of diesel each year, the equivalent of almost 500,000 tonnes less CO₂.
- Considering that each kilo of traditional natural gas emits nearly 4 kg of CO₂, it is estimated that the 80,000 tonnes of renewable natural gas (RNG) that the Mauricie Project will produce will avoid the emission of nearly 300,000 tonnes of CO₂.
- If we add these two data, the total GHG reduction potential of the Mauricie Project would therefore be 800,000 tonnes of CO₂.