The more the days pass, the more letters of opinion on this pharaonic industrial project accumulate. Many are concerned, with good reason, about the potential impacts on biodiversity. On the other hand, what we rarely see in these points of view is the archaic vision of our public decision-makers in terms of economic development, that of another era which should be over.
Today, the general situation, both from an economic point of view and from an environmental point of view, should force our decision-makers to prioritize the reduction of our impacts on the environment, as well as the sustainability of businesses. However, in this project, neither seems to have been properly taken into account. Rather, we see economic development as in the last century.
During this period, we bet everything on huge companies with thousands of jobs. Then, in the event of a closure, an entire city could find itself bankrupt. However, the vast majority of jobs in Quebec are within small and medium-sized businesses, while less than 20% are within large industries (Statistics Canada, Employment by sector of activity and industry, Quebec and Canada, 2023). Furthermore, this old model destroyed nature at high speed, gradually making the planet uninhabitable.
Of course, Quebec must become a world leader in the use of electricity for several reasons. However, when the time comes to develop our territory and welcome large companies of this type, we should favor projects that integrate all sectors of life; residential, leisure, educational, commercial, public transport, active transport and… industrial.
At a time when small businesses are closing one after the other, or shopping centers built far from residences are losing boutiques and large stores to online commerce, where small and medium-sized businesses are giving up on expanding or opening new facilities due to inability to find employees (some even close), where people want to spend less time in their cars going to work and shopping, how come we are repeating these mistakes from pass ?
Worse still, the Northvolt project will not create jobs. Rather, there will be a movement of employees. The labor shortage is real. It was predicted 30 years ago and is expected to last more than a decade. To supply Northvolt with employees, it is local small and medium-sized businesses that will lose them. This will directly threaten their future. Will it be necessary to close businesses to provide Northvolt with employees?
As for this very opaque way of doing things where everything is done on the sly, hidden or redacted, this is certainly not what Quebecers have the right to expect. Shouldn’t we have publicly opened up the discussion to the general public in order to collect a host of ideas?
An acquaintance of mine recently gave me the following example: the large Promenades Saint-Bruno shopping center. The latter is a model largely responsible for our dependence on the car and is increasingly empty. Couldn’t this site have been considered as a site where the factory and a multi-storey residential complex for families could have been built? Such a project would have ensured the future of at least half of the businesses, with sports areas, a school, underground parking, financial incentives for not having a car, public transportation worthy of the name, etc.
Many other suggestions could have arisen if our elected officials truly worked for the good of the general public rather than to ensure the maintenance of wealth in the hands of a few. I have been observing the development of Quebec for as long as it has concerned me, it will soon be a good forty years. I do not understand this obstinacy of our decision-makers to repeat the mistakes that led us towards the climate wall. How sad !