The air quality regulation recently adopted by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM) continues to cause reactions.
After Sanimax, it is the turn of the Employers’ Council for the Environment of Quebec (CPEQ) to call on the Legault government to block its application. Quebec, which has not yet given the green light to the regulation, invites industries and cities to “find common ground”.
In a 17-page letter sent to Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette, CPEQ President Hélène Lauzon explicitly asks him to “refuse approval” of the air quality regulation adopted by the CMM on June 16th. The CPEQ represents more than 300 companies for issues related to the environment and sustainable development.
She denounces “the lack of consultation and the lack of transparency of the CMM”, emphasizing on several occasions the impacts that this regulation will have on the entire Quebec food chain, but also on the treatment of organic matter. And the odor standards imposed on the metropolitan territory will be “virtually impossible to respect” for several companies, we read there.
Essentially, the regulations adopted by the CMM tighten the supervision of certain industries, by imposing, among other things, respect for opening hours and by giving more powers to the municipalities for the application of a regulation on the quality already existing air.
One of the aspects criticized by the CPEQ is the discretionary power granted to the director of the Montreal Environment Service, who can suspend or revoke the operating permits of a non-compliant company. “In practice, the Director will therefore have the discretion to suspend or revoke many permits at any time, in the event of a single infraction, even minor or impossible to avoid. Such discretionary power to shut down businesses should not be granted,” the organization stresses. The City of Montreal ensures for its part that the powers of the latter are marked out.
The CPEQ is asking for “substantial modifications” to the adopted by-law, sums up in To have to Olivier Dulube, deputy director of public and legislative affairs for the organization. The CPEQ hopes that there will be “a consultation with the companies affected”. “We only learned what was in the regulations at the end of July,” he said.
For its part, the CMM ensures that it has neither lacked transparency nor kept the industry on the sidelines. She did not have to do any consultations since these were changes to an existing regulation. “The desire is to clarify elements that were already in our regulations. And above all, there are no new standards, neither for odors nor for other pollutant emissions. A company that complied with the previous regulations need not worry,” assures Émilie Charbonneau, environment team leader at the CMM.
As for the standards that manufacturers consider “impossible to respect”, Émilie Charbonneau believes that companies can comply with these requirements: “The work of modifications [réglementaires], we did it jointly with the City of Montreal, which brought a lot of elements because it is the one that applies it. She is in the best position to know what is the least difficult to apply on the ground, and the City was satisfied. »
The Government of Quebec normally has 60 days to approve (or not) such a settlement. Its analysis is not yet complete, however, indicated by email the attaché of the Minister of the Environment, Rosalie Tremblay-Cloutier, adding that “for the ministry, it is important that the various actors concerned manage to find a ground of agreement that takes into account the impacts on neighboring populations, on the environment and on the agri-food chain, and that is what we are currently working on”.
At the center of considerations
Last week, The duty reported the fears of Sanimax, owner and operator of the only rendering site in Montreal, currently in a standoff with the City, of being forced to reduce or cease its activities if the recent CMM regulation were applied as is.
In an interview, the CEO for North America of the multinational then denounced a decision “taken on the sly” which could lead to the closing of the factory.
In its letter, the CPEQ points out that the closure of the Montreal plant would have significant consequences for the entire food chain in Quebec and for the circular economy of organic materials: “The Montreal rendering plant receives, among other things, slaughterhouse residues from a considerable part of the province and transforms them into new protein materials used as inputs in several agricultural and animal husbandry processes. Every week, Sanimax processes the by-products of five million chickens and 175,000 pigs in Quebec.
For its part, Montreal reiterates that it is ready to restart discussions with Sanimax and Quebec to work on developing an action plan that would reduce odors. In an email response, the City assures that the granting and suspension of permits is not done on a discretionary basis, but that it is a well-marked process. “If Sanimax, like all other companies, follows the regulations in force and respects the standards put in place since 1987, it has nothing to fear for its operations”, we write.
Asked about the deadlock in the discussions between Sanimax and the metropolis, the Minister of the Environment replied by email: “The government invites the parties to sit down to discuss their common concerns and to work together on solutions to the health and well-being of the population. »
MWC says it has neither lacked transparency nor sidelined the industry