Prime Minister François Legault persists and signs. To develop the “green economy”, the CAQ government had to put in place environmental standards that would allow projects like that of Northvolt to escape the evaluation procedure imposed on large industrial projects, which would have required Quebec in particular to hold public consultations.
The start of “the battery sector”, of which the Northvolt project is part, “is one of my greatest pride”, underlined Thursday Mr. Legault, in response to questions from the parliamentary leader of Québec solidaire, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, asked during the question period of the National Assembly.
The CAQ leader at the same time defended his government’s decision to create a specific regulatory provision for factories like that of Northvolt, which allows it to escape the environmental procedure which would involve an impact study and an examination by the Bureau of public hearings on the environment (BAPE).
“Green economy”
“In Quebec, for projects like Northvolt, we have the strictest standards of the 60 states and provinces in North America,” said the Prime Minister. If we had increased them even more, there was a risk that the project would be done in another province or state in the United States, because Northvolt looked at all its options. »
“For the green economy, there were no rules,” added Mr. Legault.
Before July 2023, a project like Northvolt would indeed have been considered a “chemical” manufacturing plant, since this type of facility uses various types for the construction of batteries.
The threshold for compliance was then set at an annual production of 50,000 metric tons. The threshold set for factories like that of the Swedish company is now 60,000 tonnes, and Northvolt will produce, according to information currently available, 56,000 tonnes.
“If this isn’t custom changing the rules, what is it? Does the Prime Minister recognize that Northvolt received preferential treatment? » asked Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois on Thursday. “We are putting 7 billion in public funds into this project. Can the Prime Minister recognize that he changed the rules to prevent Quebecers from being able to vote on the largest industrial project in Quebec’s history? » he also argued during question period.
Deadline
The government has until Friday to submit the first phase of construction of the Northvolt plant to a procedure leading to a BAPE review, since there is a three-month deadline and the authorization request was submitted on December 22.
At the moment, it is impossible to know what the repercussions of this phase could be for biodiversity, the host community and the nearby Richelieu River. Documents filed by the company in support of this request have not been made public. The duty attempted to obtain them by using the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies, but the file transmitted was largely redacted at the request of Northvolt.
“The Northvolt saga illustrates how difficult it is to access information regarding environmental assessment, even for a project of this magnitude,” laments Alice-Anne Simard, general director of Nature Québec. We are therefore asking that the public register of environmental assessments, which was promised six years ago, during the reform of the Environmental Quality Act, be put in place. » This register would allow public access to the documents taken into account in a request for ministerial authorization.
“The population cannot even know if the government is enforcing its authorization criteria, because these criteria are not public and accessible,” adds the head of the Climate-Energy campaign at Greenpeace Canada, Patrick Bonin. And it is very worrying to note that the government is ready to pay billions for Northvolt, but that it is not ready to send inspectors on the ground to ensure that the foreign company complies with Quebec regulations. »
The Quebec Ministry of the Environment did not carry out any inspection on the site during the destruction of the wetlands by Northvolt. It is therefore not possible to independently verify whether all measures have been taken to avoid killing the wildlife present, which includes endangered species.
“Accommodations”
The duty however revealed Thursday that the company had proposed to the Quebec Ministry of the Environment to use an illegal method to fill in wetlands on its site, namely the use of contaminated soil. She also raised the idea of emptying wetlands in order to destroy them, before being called to order by government experts.
“We have done everything, until now, to meet the company’s demands. So I imagine that she feels legitimate to ask for accommodations on how to fill in wetlands, indicates Marc-André Viau, director of government relations at Équiterre. But the more the government persists in seeing environmental regulations as an obstacle to industrial development, the more it will find itself with problems of social acceptability, even for well-received projects. »
In this context, and in the absence of a BAPE examination, it would be desirable to “quickly form an independent committee to advise it on the next stages of setting up the factory”, maintains Alain Branchaud, general director of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec.
At the moment, it is not known what authorization requests will be filed next. Additional phases of the development of the industrial complex will probably be tabled, but also the project for a pumping system and water discharge into the Richelieu River.
In theory, for all these phases, the Minister of the Environment of Quebec, Benoit Charette, could recommend that the Northvolt company be subject to an environmental procedure involving an impact study.