A Montrealer originally from Abitibi-Témiscamingue, Gaël Poirier asked himself a lot of questions about the race to extract lithium in Quebec. Is it worth sacrificing portions of the land, forests and waterways in the name of the energy transition? Can electric cars save the world? Can his native region benefit from this craze?
With his partner, Élise Ekker-Lambert, he decided to turn over all the stones. The couple embarked on a journey that took them to the four corners of Abitibi-Témiscamingue to listen to the opinions of around sixty people. This results in a sound documentary of almost five hours, in five episodes, entitled In the land of cratersperfect for a car trip between Montreal and Val-d’Or!
“Initially, we wanted to do a single one-hour episode, but we quickly realized that it would not be enough to shed light on the question,” reports Élise Ekker-Lambert, who co-signed the production, scriptwriting and writing. sound recording.
The result actually has the merit of exploring the craze for critical and strategic minerals from multiple angles, including social, environmental and economic. We hear the concerns of members of Anishinaabe communities, the nuances of mayors of certain municipalities, the confidence of mining workers, the ideas of activists, as well as the analyzes of experts in economics, energy and mining development.
Mr. Poirier gives the floor to his grandmother, who lives in La Corne, the host municipality of the North American Lithium mine, as well as to his uncle, who works there. The protagonists visit Richard Desjardins, who welcomes them to his camp in the boreal forest. They listen to the blasting in the shadow of hills of rock. They travel through the partly abandoned town of Virginiatown, across the border from Ontario, home to a former gold mine.
The work is embellished with childhood memories and sounds captured in this nature that is both strong and vulnerable. The wild geese, the spruce trees, the wind and the lakes thus speak. Personal and informative, the film is inevitably reminiscent of a podcast I like Hydroadapted from the documentary play by Christine Beaulieu.
“It would be difficult to say that it didn’t inspire us,” admits Mr. Poirier, who works as a producer at Radio-Canada. This long podcast format makes it possible to explain complex issues and create an effect of proximity, he believes. “I find it interesting that people can travel inside their heads and meet these people in a more intimate way. »
Feed the discussion
Through this project, Mr. Poirier wishes to stimulate healthy and open discussion in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, where criticizing the mining industry is still taboo. A tour of public listening sessions is also organized from March 27 to April 3 in eight municipalities and communities in the region.
“We are not against all mining development and we are not against mining workers. We don’t want people to lose their jobbut there is a need to think about how we exploit our resources,” believes the expatriate.
However, certain voices are absent: those of the mining industry and the government of Quebec, a major promoter of the battery sector. Despite their requests, the couple of directors did not manage to obtain an interview with Sayona Quebec, which operates the only active lithium mine in the province, nor with the Quebec Mining Association.
The Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry did not respond to his request either. “The only letter we received from the ministry was when we reserved a mining claim. She said that the claim was not ours, because we had not made the payment,” says Mr. Poirier. This correspondence followed his approach to verify how easy it is to obtain mining exploration rights online for a few dozen dollars, in this case in the habitat of the woodland caribou.
If Mr. Poirier said he was “mixed up” at the start, he now has a firmer opinion on these questions. He does not have the impression that Quebec is moving in the right direction to combat the climate crisis.
“We are not in transition. We are talking more about an addition. We’re just adding operations, we’re adding holes, we’re adding vehicles on the road. All this in a region which has a labor problem and where people increasingly come to work “fly-in, fly-out”, that is to say they take the plane to go there,” says the one who calls for more decision-making power for citizens.