“No one is going to die,” launched Minister Fitzgibbon, to trivialize the consequences of the rights to pollute granted by his government to 89 companies.
However, nothing is more wrong.
Pollution prematurely kills more than 9 million people a year worldwide, according to The Lancetone of the most rigorous medical journals.
In Quebec, it is 4000 individuals per year, according to Health Canada.
New studies also show that there is no safe air pollution threshold. Particularly in the case of arsenic.
What is happening in Rouyn-Noranda with the Horne Foundry is only the tip of an iceberg that is destroying lives.
Willful blindness
Our national director of public health, Dr. Boileau, would do well to update his knowledge of environmental health, before asserting that 15 ng/m3 of arsenic in the air is safe for populations at risk.
You should know that the standard of 3 ng/m3 is already a compromise. The ideal is obviously zero.
However, for the next year, the current government will tolerate 65 ng/m3 to reach 15 in just 5 years.
And we are only talking about arsenic here!
The Horne Smelter releases at least 23 different contaminants into the air, including cadmium, lead and nickel.
This chemical cocktail has worrying cumulative and multiplicative effects that are still too little discussed.
The right to poison
To issue rights to pollute above the standards is to give rights to poison the population in small doses.
Even when this pollution smells nothing, tastes nothing and is invisible, it can have medium and long-term effects on health and the environment.
Do you think that the citizens of Westmount, Sillery or Ville Mont-Royal would agree to be contaminated in this way?
Rouyn-Noranda’s population is not a statistic. These are real people whose health is negotiated at a discount for the benefit of an unscrupulous multinational.
glencore
The Horne Foundry belongs to Glencore, a multinational company present in 43 countries and headquartered in Switzerland. She is known in Quebec for her lobbying on the nickel file.
Its practices are regularly denounced. It appears in the lists of the worst multinational companies for the violation of human rights, labor rights and the environment.
Glencore has also pleaded guilty several times to allegations of corruption and market manipulation. His name is on the lists of companies practicing tax evasion.
And she’s the one people should trust? What’s more, give it subsidies so that it implements technologies to reduce its emissions?
However, it is not the money that is lacking. In 2021, Glencore reported consolidated gross revenues of US$203 billion and posted profits of US$19 billion in the first quarter this year.
It is time to develop other types of jobs in Rouyn-Noranda so that the population can free itself from its dependence on Glencore. The future is elsewhere.
Quebec enters the election. It is time to put pressure on all parties so that the next government makes health a real priority.
For this, the environment must be protected.
Quebec no longer has to be the colony of any company.