Around 200 people gathered on Sunday in downtown Montreal to demand that the Northvolt battery factory project be subject to an examination by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE). Although the atmosphere was good-natured – with music from Cowboys Fringants – the demonstrators still expressed their indignation at the regulatory treatment to which the Swedish company will have to comply.
“I think that the fact that it was done without consulting anyone, by not having all the information in hand before taking action, is really annoying,” laments Geneviève, who came with her partner and her two children. “What we are doing today is to demonstrate that in future projects, if we need a BAPE, we must focus on it before taking action and destroying. »
The environmental organization Mothers at the Front, which organized the event, was of the same opinion. Sylvie Cantin, who is involved with the group, affirms that “a BAPE helps us make the best decisions”. She denounces the government’s “haste” in this matter and deplores that the cathode production threshold which would have subject the factory to review was raised from an annual production of 50,000 metric tons to 60,000 tons, thus allowing to the project of avoiding a BAPE study.
Last November, we learned that only one portion of the Northvolt project would be subject to a BAPE review, but only once the plant is built and already in operation. The Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, reiterated at the end of February that it was not necessary to subject Northvolt to the environmental procedure normally imposed on large industrial projects, since Quebec regulations were sufficiently strict.
Last week, a survey by the firm Léger, commissioned by Northvolt, revealed that even if citizens of the region are mostly in favor of the project, 67% of the 500 respondents supported an environmental assessment of the BAPE.
“Mr. Legault, it is inconceivable that this project would move forward without a BAPE,” protested Mr.me Cantin while speaking to a man who wore an oversized mask bearing the features of the Prime Minister.
“From now on, absolutely all decisions must be scrutinized for their impacts on the environment,” said the co-founder of Mères au front, the environmental sociologist Laure Waridel. “We also need a real debate on our energy choices,” she adds.
Mme Waridel highlighted the contribution of green technologies – including electric vehicle batteries – to help in the transition away from fossil fuels. “But it is imperative that they develop while respecting other environmental dimensions and in the interest of all of society, not just a few large corporations, otherwise we are just shifting the problem. »
“It’s not because it’s the battery sector that it’s good,” summarizes Sylvie Cantin. Seeing the crowd gathered in front of the offices of the Executive Council of the Government of Quebec in Montreal, she said she was optimistic that the Northvolt project would eventually be subject to a BAPE review.