The hearing concerning the request for an injunction filed last week against Northvolt which was to take place Tuesday at the Montreal courthouse was postponed until Wednesday.
In a press release published Tuesday morning, the Swedish multinational indicated that this decision was taken following a request made by the City of Saint-Basile-le-Grand and an agreement between the parties.
The company added that it would not comment further, “out of respect for the ongoing legal process.” Work on the site of the future factory remains suspended, she said.
This is the second time the hearing regarding the injunction request has been postponed.
The procedure began last week, but Judge David R. Collier of the Superior Court of Quebec postponed the hearing scheduled for Friday to Tuesday to allow the defendants to read the case.
The Swedish multinational began tree felling work at the beginning of last week on the site of its future battery factory in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in Montérégie.
This work was, however, put on hold while the Superior Court examined the requests for provisional and interlocutory injunctions filed by the Quebec Environmental Law Center and three citizens.
In the meantime, Northvolt could not carry out “tree felling work in wetlands and 500 meters from them” on the site of the future factory, the judge ruled.
The Quebec Environmental Law Center and the three citizens argue that the work at the factory is “worrying for biodiversity” and that the multinational’s land is a “habitat for many threatened or vulnerable animal species.”
A provisional injunction normally lasts 10 days, but the Quebec Environmental Law Center and the three citizens are also requesting an interlocutory injunction.
For her part, the lawyer representing Northvolt said last Friday that a 10-day provisional injunction “would cause irreparable harm” to the company.
“Northvolt wishes to reiterate its commitment to participating in decarbonization by offering a sustainable model for battery manufacturing. We want to continue to achieve this mission with and for the communities,” the company underlined in its press release published Tuesday.
The planned site for the construction of the battery manufacturing and recycling plant is located on 171 hectares of land in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville.