On the airwaves of 98.5 at the start of the week, on the eve of the hearing on the request for an injunction presented by the Quebec Center for Environmental Law (CQDE) to stop the felling of trees and backfilling of wetlands initiated on the grounds of the Northvolt mega-factory in Montérégie, Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon admitted to being worried about the judicialization of the case.
Without going too far into a case before the courts, he nevertheless recognized that the “outpouring of hostility” faced by the Swedish giant sent a strange message to investors. However, true to form, bothered by nothing, he stayed the course: no, the government did not seek to move too quickly on this issue, despite what certain environmental groups and citizens say. There was no BAPE because the standards in force — modified last February, shortly before the project was announced — simply do not require a BAPE. For the rest, he explained, we can trust the seriousness of Northvolt, a rigorous and scrupulous company, which has its values in the right place.
Questioned on the same issue on LCN, the minister saw his proverbial nonchalance end up taking over. “The reason why I came into politics is to create projects and collective wealth,” he explained. I think it’s a project that is unique for Quebec, but maybe I’m the only one who thinks like that. »
It is the population who will decide, and “if the population does not want the project,” he ended up declaring with a shrug, “there will be no project.” It’s not serious “.
The minister’s defensive reflex is interesting. When he faces criticism, he often ends up suggesting that he does not care more than he should about his projects, and that if the population does not want him, he will return to taking care of his prosperous people. onions. No Northvolt? It’s not serious. This would undoubtedly be an error of judgment, given the multiple economic and environmental virtues of this project, but that concerns the population.
The subtext is that this is a gift, and that the protest betrays an inability to appreciate what the industry, through the enterprise of well-networked ministers, offers us. The president of the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), Michel Leblanc, summed it up well this fall: the contestation of the Northvolt project betrays a lack of “collective maturity” on the part of Quebecers.
Or is it the opposite? Quebecers have perhaps reached a level of collective maturity allowing them to discern the hidden costs that come with certain gifts, and we can collectively aspire to economic development projects that respect the integrity of ecosystems and offer real prospects for prosperity. shared.
On Wednesday, the CQDE affirmed before the Superior Court of Quebec that the Legault government had acted unreasonably by authorizing the destruction of wetlands and the felling of trees on the land of the Northvolt project. The decision was taken hastily, in the absence of crucial information about the impacts of the work, it was argued.
Remember that the Ministry of the Environment itself identified 21 vulnerable or threatened species and 142 species of birds on the factory site, according to documents obtained by The duty, testifying to the rich biodiversity present on the site. This habitat will be destroyed in the coming weeks, compromising its ability to protect the species that live there.
On the other hand, it was declared that the mega-factory project was in itself carried out in the public interest and that a rigorous wildlife analysis – carried out by the government without having been made public – attests to the merits of the decision to move forward without further delay. Northvolt, it is emphasized, will also have to compensate for the loss of natural environments. Plants, turtles, snakes, birds: nothing to worry about when it comes to future profits. This is, moreover, the rhetoric that has governed this entire issue since the beginning.
In Ottawa, no one is worried either. The federal Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, reiterated his enthusiasm for the project this week. The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, recalled that any industrial project necessarily had an impact on the environment. The disruption of an ecosystem would here be only a modest concession given the hoped-for benefits.
These promises, on the other hand, remain vague. What are they based on, if not on the hackneyed belief that private industrial development is in itself a guarantee of shared prosperity? We argue that this is a structuring project for a key sector of the future. But the (possible) electrification of transport is not a panacea for a successful ecological transition either. In addition, the lack of transparency from the Legault government in the development of this project fuels concerns about its real benefits.
We are told about Northvolt with the affected tone of great lords who know what is good for the common people. We are shown the jewel, but above all we see the dust which accumulates there and veils its luster. Perhaps, in fact, people understand that the model of forced marriage to giants has had its day in overcoming the challenges of our time.