Twelve environmental groups released a press release Wednesday in which they called for an independent environmental assessment to be carried out on the site of the future Northvolt factory in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand.
These organizations deplore that “work to fell trees and fill in wetlands began” on Tuesday, “without Quebec having held a real environmental assessment.”
The press release signed by Eau Secours, Nature Québec, Greenpeace and the David Suzuki Foundation, in particular, underlines that “without an independent environmental assessment, the government will become a prisoner of the successive concessions it has made until now and who knows to what extent it will will have to face the many other obstacles that will undoubtedly arise in the future, such as the pumping of water into the habitat of the copper redhorse or the disturbance of the least bittern during the nesting period.
The Ministry of the Environment authorized last week the start of construction work on the plant, without an examination by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
However, Northvolt will eventually be imposed a BAPE, for the part of its mega factory project linked to battery recycling.
The organizations also denounce the lack of transparency on the part of the parties involved.
“The perception that the regulations relating to the environmental assessment of projects have been changed specifically for Northvolt also greatly harms the social acceptability of the project,” according to the groups which also include the Quebec Environmental Law Center (CQDE). ), ENvironnement JEUnesse, Équiterre, Fondation Rivière, the Quebec Common Front for Ecological Waste Management (FCQGED), the Climate Reality Canada Project, the Quebec Network of Environmental Groups – RQGE and SNAP Quebec.
A regulation was modified last February by Quebec allowing the Northvolt project to escape an examination by the BAPE, according to information first relayed by Radio-Canada.
Its production capacity would be 56,000 metric tons, while the Regulation relating to the evaluation and examination of the environmental impacts of certain projects was modified so as to avoid a BAPE evaluation for battery factories that produce 60,000 metric tons or less.
Northvolt’s future lithium battery factory will receive $7.3 billion in provincial and federal aid.