(Glasgow) Rio Tinto did not announce the long-awaited investments in Quebec on Wednesday, but is looking for a way to bring them to fruition.
This is what the president of the aluminum and metals giant, Jakob Stausholm, suggested during a meeting with Prime Minister François Legault on Wednesday at COP26, the United Nations Conference on Climate Change, in Glasgow, Scotland.
“We must find ways to invest in Saguenay,” he said in response to a question from The Canadian Press, at the start of the private interview with the Prime Minister.
The majority of the company’s facilities in Quebec are located in Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean.
Workers and the economic and political community of this region have been mobilized for a long time to obtain investments in order to modernize aging facilities whose environmental authorizations expire in 2025.
The PQ opposition, which has long demanded firm commitments from Rio Tinto, was keen to react.
The PQ member for Jonquière, Sylvain Gaudreault, whose constituency includes Rio Tinto facilities, is also taking part in the COP.
“I have just arrived at COP26 and it is the perfect moment to promote both the ‘green label’ of Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean aluminum and the issue of just transition for Rio Tinto workers in the region, he said.
“It is not up to the workers to bear the brunt of the ecological transition and the government must be there for the company to invest soon.” ”
The stake does not only concern the maintenance of jobs and economic vitality, but also the environment. Because Rio Tinto’s factories are among the most polluting in Quebec, so the government has every interest in ensuring that the facilities are modernized in order to achieve the greenhouse gas (GHG) reduction targets that it has set itself. fixed.
If, however, factories were modernized to use less polluting processes, such as carbon-free aluminum, it would no longer be necessary to employ so many workers.
According to a political source familiar with the matter, the future of the AP60 pilot plant should in particular be confirmed and the plant become permanent. But also, the region is counting on the construction of the Elysis electrode manufacturing plant, for the carbon-free aluminum process.
However, this would not be enough to maintain the current pool of jobs in the region.
Mr. Stausholm praised his group’s facilities in Saguenay – Lac-Saint-Jean, “huge facilities”, in his words.
“We are winners in Quebec,” he said, suggesting that the company derives many advantages from remaining in Quebec.
The manufacture of aluminum requires a lot of electricity and Rio Tinto can even count on its own dams, which have not been nationalized by Hydro-Quebec.