Nickel Standard | Benoit Charette agrees to meet parents from Limoilou

(Quebec) The Minister of the Environment undertakes to meet parents in the Limoilou district who are concerned about the new standard on nickel in the air, which the government wants to put in place to attract investments related to the ” energetic transition “.

Gabriel Beland
The Press

The City of Quebec, which shares these concerns, also officially asked Thursday to keep the old, stricter standard on its territory if the government goes ahead.

“We have a real intention of meeting the parents of Limoilou. We are looking at the best time to hold this meeting,” says Minister Benoit Charrette’s press secretary, Rosalie Tremblay-Cloutier.

The Minister of the Environment has also called the media for an announcement “concerning the air quality in the Lower Town of Quebec”, which will take place Friday morning.

The National Assembly unanimously adopted a motion from Québec solidaire on Thursday asking the minister to meet the “parents of Limoilou”. These parents are in fact an informal collective “for healthy air” which intends to submit a brief to the Government of Quebec. More than 650 people have already signed it.

“By dint of talking about it at the grocery store, at school, at the pharmacy, we got together and wrote a dissertation,” explains Limoulois Sébastien St-Onge. “I promised my daughters to act. »

“I would go and meet the minister. We are interested. We want a constructive space. I don’t want to demonize the government. But our fears are real,” said Mr. St-Onge, who has not yet been contacted by the minister’s office.

The Legault government will modify the standards on nickel in the air for the benefit of the industry. The limit for particles in the air must be increased from 14 to 70 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m⁠³) daily.

However, the Limoilou district, in Quebec, is the sector most affected in the province by nickel in the air. This is where most, if not all, of the overruns have occurred. The neighborhood is bordered by the waste incinerator and nickel transshipment activities at the Port of Quebec.

Since 2018, the 14 nanogram standard has been exceeded around 50 times. The new, much more permissive standard would have been exceeded twenty times.

“Even with the new high standard, we would have quite frequent and problematic overshoots. It worries us. You have to take the necessary time, ”explained the mayor of Quebec on Thursday.

Bruno Marchand made public the 227-page brief from the City of Quebec. The elected officials of Quebec are unanimously opposed to the new standard. The City is now asking the government not to adopt it, or to provide an exception for the capital.

The current standard of 14 ng/m⁠³ on a daily basis is one of the most severe in the world. The new standard of 70 would be closer to that of Ontario (100 ng/m³).

A senior government official recently explained that the government was motivated to change the standard, among other things, to attract investment.

“Behind that, there is the fact of being able to attract international investors in projects related to the energy transition, the electrification of transport. All of this partly motivates the current approach,” noted Jacob Martin-Malus, from the Ministry of the Environment, during a meeting with the media.