By exempting the Northvolt Six project from audits by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) in order to attract its promoter to Quebec, Minister Benoit Charette failed to fulfill his main task: that of protecting the environment, believe opposition groups in the National Assembly.
“We knew the CAQ government was insensitive to environmental issues and the climate crisis, but at this point, it’s surreal,” thundered the spokesperson for the official liberal opposition on the fight against climate change on Wednesday. , Virginie Dufour. She had just heard the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, admit that Northvolt would never have chosen Quebec if it had had to be subject to a BAPE examination.
During a round of interviews Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the elected official from the Coalition Avenir Québec agreed to have “adapted Quebec environmental regulations” to allow projects in the battery sector to be exempt from the analysis process of the BAPE. All this in the context of a “global race” in the production of batteries and electric cars.
With a BAPE, “it’s certain [que Northvolt] would have chosen another place to set up,” said Mr. Charette on Wednesday at the microphone of the show All one morningon ICI Première, adding that the whole process would have taken at least 18 months.
“We can consider ourselves privileged and lucky, because he is a very good student from an environmental point of view. And he is a student who will help us achieve our decarbonization objectives, particularly in terms of transport,” argued the CAQ minister. Mr. Charette’s office declined our interview requests on Wednesday.
Work in progress
When submitting the application for authorization to destroy wetlands and wooded areas on its land, at the beginning of September 2023, Northvolt hoped to have completed this step before the end of the year. Six months later, 60,000 m2 wetlands have been destroyed and the company is awaiting authorization to construct the first buildings of its factory. It hopes to begin production in 2026, but for the moment, we do not know the details of the next steps, including the pumping system and discharge of water into the Richelieu River.
“Mr. Charette is the Quebec Minister of the Environment, but he does not protect Quebec or the environment,” lamented Wednesday in a press release the spokesperson for Quebec solidaire on the matter, Alejandra Zaga Mendez.
” Once again, [il] puts Quebecers before a false dilemma. The energy transition can and must be achieved, but social acceptability and respect for environmental standards must be there,” she said, while reiterating her request to see Northvolt submitted once and for all to the BAPE.
During a speech in Quebec last week, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, questioned reports which indicated that Quebec had modified its regulations to allow Northvolt to avoid a lengthy environmental assessment process. . “Some journalists from opposition parties claim that the rules were changed so that Northvolt could avoid a BAPE. I hope you understand that this is completely false,” he said.
” The Minister [Charette] admits having misled Quebecers for weeks about changing the rules. He admits that Northvolt obtained all the desired privileges,” replied the PQ environmental critic, Joël Arseneau, in a written statement sent on Wednesday. “ [Il] proves through its declarations that it denies its responsibilities to protect the environment, ensure the conservation and development of biodiversity and play a key role in the climate transition, from a sustainable perspective, to play the cheerleaders of manufacturing development. »
No favoritism, says Charette
Before environmental rules changed in February 2023, a project like Northvolt would have been subject to the procedure as a “chemical manufacturing” plant. In this category, companies whose annual production capacity exceeds 50,000 tonnes are automatically subject to a BAPE examination.
However, the Legault government’s regulatory changes have created a new category of factories: those that produce “energy storage equipment”. For these, the BAPE threshold has increased to 60,000 tonnes. Northvolt will have a capacity of approximately 56,000 tonnes.
Benoit Charette reaffirmed Wednesday that the environmental procedure which would have led to the BAPE, and which was modified in the weeks preceding the announcement of the project, was not adapted to accommodate Northvolt. “I never helped the company avoid a BAPE,” he assured All one morning. We have adapted the regulations to implement this sector which is necessary from a strictly environmental point of view. […] There was no preferential treatment given to Northvolt, no privileges and no political pressure. »
According to the CAQ elected official, there simply did not exist “regulations to encourage the establishment of a battery sector”. “This is what we have developed over the last year, but in no way with the aim of favoring one company to the detriment of another. And never with the aim of circumventing or avoiding the regulations to avoid a BAPE. You must not make me say what I did not say,” argued Minister Charette.
The company, however, confirmed on Wednesday that it had asked the government to raise a threshold linked to battery production and which was on the agenda during the development of changes to the regulations, in February 2023. Quebec planned while beyond 30 gigawatt hours (GWh), a factory was subject to the process leading to a BAPE. Northvolt asked to set this threshold at a minimum of 40 GWh. The Legault government finally abandoned the idea of setting a threshold.
Minister Charette also mentioned on ICI Première the Legault government’s desire to review the operation of the BAPE. “Over the coming months, we will look at how to hold our BAPEs,” he said, evoking the idea of shortening the deadlines to “improve this procedure”.
Biodiversity
The Minister of the Environment also repeated that the Northvolt site is former “industrial land”, that Northvolt protects “places of biodiversity of interest” and that the company has implemented measures “to ensure that biodiversity can develop.”
The reports from his ministry’s experts produced as part of the analysis of the request for the destruction of wetlands and wooded areas by Northvolt nevertheless indicate that the project will have significant impacts on fauna and flora.
The “loss” of more than 950,000 m2 of natural environments on the site constitutes a point of no return for the biodiversity of the sector, according to what we can read in an analysis transmitted following a request for access to information. Indeed, the experts underline, the surface area of “residual” natural environments would “not be sufficient to maintain the essential functions supporting local and regional wildlife biodiversity, in this case avian fauna, turtles and bats”.