The environment, the decisive electoral theme? This is what science is asking for and what more and more citizens are hoping for, particularly in a context where the effects of climate change are increasing in Quebec. The environment division of To have to therefore goes to meet the population to measure the extent to which their vote will be influenced by ecological issues. Today: air quality in Rouyn-Noranda.
The Horne Foundry is present everywhere in Rouyn-Noranda. In minds, in the urban landscape, in discussions, in its history. It provides hundreds of very well paid jobs, finances culture, sports, university research. But it also releases contaminants into the air, including arsenic, which infects the grounds of the Notre-Dame district, which would increase the risk of cancer and which would compromise the development of children.
The title “One mine, one city” that caps the historical panels dotted throughout Rouyn-Noranda alone sums up the complexity of the debate surrounding air quality in the Abitibi metropolis. “The problem is that this mine built the city,” notes Benoît Bureau, a doctor who lives below the foundry.
“People don’t want it to close. They want her to stop polluting, ”explains the doctor, who himself says he is worried about his health and that of his loved ones. “Yesterday, the smoke [qui s’échappait de la fonderie] was yellow and it tasted of sulphur,” he reports while washing his car outside his home.
Under the current agreement, the Horne Smelter, owned by the multinational Glencore, has the right to produce average annual arsenic emissions of 100 nanograms per cubic meter (ng/m3) of air, i.e. 33 times more than the Quebec standard of 3 ng/m3.
In 30 years of practice, Benoît Bureau says he has diagnosed many cancers among his fellow citizens. “I’ve seen lung cancer in people who didn’t smoke. We suspected [avec mes collègues] that something was going on. »
It was not until May 2019, however, that the results of a biomonitoring study confirmed that four times higher concentrations of arsenic were found in the fingernails of residents of the Notre-Dame district than in those of the control population. of Amos.
Then, in May 2022, we learned that the incidence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer and low birth weight babies was higher in Rouyn-Noranda than elsewhere in Quebec. And the following month, Radio-Canada revealed that these data should have been revealed to the population in May 2019, but that they were withdrawn at the last minute by the former national director of public health Horacio Arruda.
Environment first
Disturbing revelations that have propelled the issue to the forefront of Quebec news. But it has been part of the Rouyn-Noranda landscape for many years. “I have the impression that we talk a lot about this in the rest of Quebec at the moment, but here, we have learned to live with it,” notes Marilou Lefebvre, whom we met last week on the campus of the Université du Quebec in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (UQAT).
Attacking the Foundry is like biting the hand that feeds us, she illustrates, recalling that the Swiss giant Glencore finances many projects in the city. “We are caught between the tree and the bark, she underlines. The mining industry contributes a great deal to regional development, but also to pollution. »
On October 3, it was the more general issue of the environment — and not just that of air quality in Rouyn-Noranda — that would guide the choice of the 33-year-old administrative assistant and that would make her circle adjacent to the name of outgoing MNA, Émilise Lessard-Therrien.
Samuel Mainville, a high school education student, also wants to offer a second term to the young 30-year-old MP. And for him too, it is the more general issue of the environment that will guide his choice. Air quality concerns him, of course, but also the energy transition, lifestyles and decline. Interrelated factors, he believes.
” Let [le dossier de la Fonderie] in the hands of a government for which the environment is not the priority” is worrying, says the young man of 27 years.
Jobs and economy above all
At the launch of UQAT’s new fundraising campaign last week, several members of the business community gathered on the Rouyn-Noranda university campus.
“My choice is made, I vote for the CAQ [Coalition avenir Québec] », launched a man working in the financial field, but who did not want to name himself in order to preserve the secrecy of his vote. In his eyes, the decisive electoral theme is undoubtedly the economy.
As for the issue of air quality, it has been “present for many years, but is now in the media”, he underlines, adding that significant investments have been made to “rectify the situation”. . “We must continue to support the company so that it improves its environmental record,” he maintains.
Near the gate marking the entrance to the huge industrial complex forming the only copper smelter in operation in Canada, Michaël Prévost, who works as a contractor in the nearly century-old facility, says he does not yet know to whom he will give his vote. .
But one thing is certain in his eyes: we talk too much about air quality. “We should change the subject and talk more about jobs,” he says, saying he believes he is adequately equipped to work safely in the foundry.
“Rouyn is not Chernobyl”
The one who is trying this fall to be elected under the banner of the CAQ in the riding of Rouyn-Noranda–Témiscamingue, the former Liberal MP and current municipal councilor in Rouyn-Noranda Daniel Bernard, however believes that the debate must be refocused. on air quality.
“We have a public health problem that needs to be resolved for a neighborhood, [le quartier Notre-Dame]. But the rest of the city is safe,” he said. “Rouyn is not Chernobyl. »
In the context of a labor shortage, the attractiveness of the entire region suffers from this “image which has been distorted from reality”, he says, throwing the responsibility on his solidary opponent, Émilise Lessard-Therrien.
Although air quality is a “major issue”, the population is also concerned about the lack of workers, health care and the housing crisis, said Bernard. A brand new radio-oncology center has just been built at the Rouyn-Noranda centre, but has still not opened its doors for lack of technologists ready to work there. “We have to reassure people,” says the CAQ candidate.
Resolve the situation
But for Émilise Lessard-Therrien, “the solution is not not to talk about it, but to resolve [la situation] once for all “. According to her, the way out is on the political level. ” [La Fonderie] plays in the sandbox that we give him, and at the moment, the sandbox allows him to play at 33 times the Quebec standard,” she laments.
The CAQ government announced in August that it wanted to reduce arsenic discharges from the foundry to 15 ng/m3over a five-year horizon, a plan deemed realistic by Glencore. For its part, Québec solidaire (QS) wants to force the company to reach the Québec standard of 3 ng/m3 within four years. For the QS flagship, this is no time for compromise. “Why would we be less demanding than elsewhere? she asks.
Meanwhile, Daniel Bernard denies not having mounted the barricades earlier to restrict the right to pollute allocated to the Horne Foundry when he was part of the Charest government from 2003 to 2007, then from 2008 to 2012. I was no longer there” at the time of the signing of the 2007 agreement with Glencore, he argues, referring to the few months when he lost his position as an MP.
Today, Émilise Lessard-Therrien believes that the people of Rouyn-Noranda are writing history. “We are drawing important lines for the future,” said the united MP, specifying that other regions are watching carefully how the file will be settled. “Right now, it’s true that he’s selling us in the face, but soon, he’s going to sell us in the back,” she replies to her detractors. “We are going to be recognized as people who have stood up, and that is very attractive. »
Division
In the shadow of the two foundry chimneys overlooking the city, the issue continues to divide the population; some even mention the emergence of a social divide between young and old, between those working in the mining industry and others more concerned about the environment.
But in Le bocal à candies, located on the main avenue, the dissension took on rather good-natured airs last week. Behind her counter, the owner of the premises, Chantal, who plans to vote for the CAQ and whose brother works at the foundry, demanded better air quality. “But it’s utopian to think that it can get closer to the norm overnight. »
By his side, his daughter Zoé Lafrenière was still hesitating — like many — between the CAQ and QS. “Émilise, she has the pedal to the max, she is quite focused on the environment, but we must not forget the economy,” she argued. When the nuances appear, is it so easy to isolate a single decisive electoral question?