The Ministère des Transports du Québec (MTQ) paid $1 million to relocate a road at the request of a mining company, which initially had to pay for the entire project. Mine Matagami, a subsidiary of Glencore, admits that it should have moved the road even without the intervention of Quebec. And contrary to what the MTQ claims, its funding did not extend the life of the mine, which is now closed.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
“There is nothing in the situation presented that justifies the state kneeling before the industry’s demands,” exclaims Rodrigue Turgeon, spokesperson for MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec Better Mine, facing to the revelations of The Press.
Glencore, the company behind the Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda and the CEZinc plant in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, is active in more than 35 countries and generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue annually.
The $1 million payment ran counter to departmental direction and risked “setting a precedent,” according to documents obtained by The Press under the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information.
Chemin de l’Aéroport in Matagami, in Nord-du-Québec, runs alongside the tailings pond of the Glencore mine. In January 2013, the multinational took steps with the MTQ to move a section of the road in order to expand and restore the site.
Glencore was initially expected to bear all the costs of moving the road, but in January 2015 it “requested a contribution from the MTQ,” reads a ministerial memo. On this occasion, “it was reiterated to the company that it had to assume all the costs”.
The ministerial orientations effectively provide that the Department “generally does not contribute financially […] to work that is intended to meet the needs of a partner”, indicates an analysis of the agreement.
In February 2016, the multinational returned to the charge by saying that “the estimated costs for the project […] [sont] too high “. Some branches of the MTQ, such as the Bureau de la coordination du Nord-du-Québec (BCNQ), are in favor of granting financial assistance.
“The management of the Glencore project will create an inequity likely to generate other requests”, however warns the General Directorate of Abitibi-Témiscamingue (DAT). “Out of fairness to other road projects with mining companies”, including Canadian Malartic and Quebec Lithium, “the DAT recommends that the [MTQ] does not participate financially in this project.
Despite this recommendation, “the approval of the ministerial cabinet to go ahead with the project, including a contribution” from the MTQ was issued in March 2017, we learn from another ministerial note. After delays, the project “should be completed by the end of the year” 2022, according to Glencore.
All amounts have been redacted in documents obtained from the Ministry. In its list of planned investments in Nord-du-Québec 2018-2020, the MTQ indicates that moving the road should cost between $5 and $10 million. This project “will make it possible to carry out work to increase the capacity of the mining tailings pond, thus making possible expansion projects”, assures a press release praising these investments which has since been removed from the government site.
The “majority of the work” paid for by Glencore
In response to questions from The PressMTQ spokesperson Émilie Lord specifies that “Glencore assumed the costs for the majority of the work and [que] the MTQ proceeded to pay the invoices, up to $1 million”. Glencore spokesman Alexis Segal confirmed the figure and estimated the project costs to the company at $5.1-6 million.
The road was “in a state of significant degradation with the presence of numerous cracks, which would have required possible repair work”, argues Mr.me Sir. An analysis of the agreement reveals, however, that these cracks “do not in themselves justify the prioritization of road repair work”.
Glencore “did not consider it profitable to extend the activities of the Matagami mine”, if it had to pay for the detour of the road alone, according to the spokesperson for the MTQ. The community was then “at very high risk of devitalization”, since its economy depended heavily on mining.
Without the help of Quebec, this would have resulted in a significant loss of occupation of the territory.
Émilie Lord, spokesperson for the Quebec Ministry of Transport
Mine Matagami’s last operating mine, which actually includes a dozen separate mines, ceased operations last June. According to Mr. Segal, of Glencore, the relocation of the road did not extend the life of the site, which contradicts the statements of the MTQ. It further confirms that Glencore would have had to relocate the road even if the Ministry had not funded the project, in accordance with its restoration plan approved in 2014 and revised in 2020. Under the Mining Actthe mining companies must pay to restore the exploited sites.
“We are talking about one of the largest multinationals on the planet, which has ample means to pay, and this form of clientelism on the part of the MTQ is very weak,” says Mr. Turgeon, of MiningWatch Canada. .
It’s a submission approach and we should rather require these companies to comply and pay.
Rodrigue Turgeon, spokesperson for MiningWatch Canada and the Coalition Québec mieux mine
Mme Lord, of the MTQ, assures that “there have been no other occurrences” of similar projects financed for mining companies since then, but that any other request “would be analyzed and the conclusion is not necessarily that the MTQ would participate financially”.
With William Leclerc
To reach Frédérik-Xavier Duhamel, write to him by email at [email protected]