There are two problems in Premier François Legault’s approach to the thorny issue of the Horne Foundry.
Posted at 5:00 a.m.
The first is when Mr. Legault repeats that it is “up to the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda to decide” the fate of the plant.
It’s wrong. The obligation to enforce environmental standards and ensure people’s health rests with the government, not with the citizens. Mr. Legault cannot discharge his responsibilities and place them on the shoulders of the population.
The second problem is when Mr. Legault takes up the company’s arguments by saying that it is “technically impossible” to reach the standard of 3 nanograms of arsenic per square meter.
That too is false. There are always ways to achieve a standard — moving residences away from the Foundry by creating a buffer zone, reducing the factory’s output, changing the inputs it accepts.
Achieving the standard should not be negotiable. What is debatable are the means and the deadlines to get there.
The election campaign is now over. A new CAQ member was elected on the spot. The time has come for a change of tone and strategy on the part of the government.
Let’s take the problems one by one.
It is still difficult to understand what Mr. Legault means exactly when he says that it is the citizens of Rouyn-Noranda who will decide whether or not to close the Horne Foundry.
Would such a decision be taken by referendum? The Prime Minister does not rule out the idea. It is, however, appalling.
Who would say exactly? The only citizens who are exposed to arsenic levels above the standards? We do not even know how many they are precisely, the sensors not being numerous enough to establish it and the concentration varying according to the days and the winds. This is without counting the other metals such as lead, cadmium and nickel, which also raise concerns.
Should the Foundry’s 650 workers also have a say? In this case, which group would be the most numerous?
Should we rather extend the exercise to all the citizens of the city? But then, how to justify the fact that the vote of a Rouynorandien who breathes clean air at the other end of the city has the same weight as that of another of the Notre-Dame district whose baby presents rates worrying about arsenic in the fingernails?
Hello puzzle and headache.
Hello, also, the atmosphere and the social division. To organize a referendum is to put the health concerns of some in direct opposition to the economic interests of others.
The role of government should instead be to bridge divides, to protect health by minimizing negative economic impacts. Not tossing the ball at citizens who have conflicting interests and telling them to quibble with each other.
This referendum, nobody seems to want it on the spot. “It is up to the government to make the decision. He must assume his leadership,” said Félix-Antoine Lafleur, president of the Abitibi-Témiscamingue central council for the CSN, which represents the workers at the plant.
The Mayor of Rouyn-Noranda, Diane Dallaire, sends exactly the same message. “It’s the government’s responsibility to set the rules,” she tells us. It could hardly be clearer.
The government is currently holding public consultations on the renewal of the depollution certificate allowing the Horne Foundry to exceed the standards. It is to be welcomed.
This consultation will shed valuable light. But let’s repeat it: if the government comes to the conclusion that the Horne Foundry must be closed, it is the government, and not the population, who must make and assume this heavy decision.
Instead of considering a referendum to make the population swallow a compromise, the government should instead use all its weight to bring the plant to respect the environmental standards in force.
This is what the community, including the Noranda Mine Workers Union, wants.
Mr. Legault repeats that he is comfortable with the value of 15 nanograms of arsenic per square meter suggested by the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec and that the company says it can reach within five years. The problem is that the INSPQ specifies that this value is acceptable “until the arsenic standard of 3 ng/m3 “.
There is therefore no way out: you need a plan that aims to achieve the arsenic standard, but also those concerning all the other pollutants. There’s only one way to do that: start from the standards, then look at the different paths to get there.
Mr. Legault would benefit from sending the clear message that the standards exist to be respected in Quebec. And show leadership by assuming its responsibilities and discarding this absurd idea of a referendum.