The new “ministerial authorization” of the Horne Foundry was sent to the Rouyn-Noranda company on Wednesday, learned The Press.
The document, which must regulate for the next five years the industrial discharges of the only copper smelter in Canada, was sent by bailiff at the end of the day, confirmed the cabinet of the Minister of the Environment, the Fight against climate change. Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, Thursday morning.
Under the Environment Quality Act (LQE), the company belonging to the multinational Glencore has two weeks to study the document and formulate its comments before it is officially in force and made public.
The Law also provides that the company can request an extension of this period of two additional weeks, which means that the ministerial certificate will be made public no later than February 23.
In the wake of the controversy over the contamination of the air and soil of Rouyn-Noranda with heavy metals, in particular arsenic, from the Horne Foundry, Quebec had undertaken to tighten the requirements imposed on the company, on the occasion of the renewal of the previous ministerial authorization, which expired at the end of last November.
Minister Charette had initially committed to issuing the new ministerial authorization before the end of the year, but discussions with the company dragged on.
Quebec had therefore announced in December the postponement of the renewal to January, by making public the summary of the public consultation carried out on the subject.
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- 1927
- Year of the beginning of the activities of the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, which also included a mine until 1976
SOURCE: HORNE FOUNDRY