Even though the government is currently analyzing the request for authorization to build the Northvolt “gigafactory”, it is impossible to obtain the details of this project financed by Quebec taxpayers. Despite a request for access to information, The duty was only able to obtain a heavily redacted document that hides the details of the project, the environmental risks and the impacts on endangered species and natural environments.
On December 22, Northvolt submitted a second request for ministerial authorization, this time to obtain the green light from the Ministry of the Environment for the construction of its factory. The information available in the ministry’s register only indicates that the company submitted the following application: “construction of a gigafactory for the production of batteries and establishment of a rainwater management system”.
This request was submitted before obtaining authorization to destroy wetlands and wooded areas of the site. It is currently being analyzed by the ministry, but at the end of January it refused to send us the details of the project analyzed. We were then invited to file a request under the Access to Information Act.
Redacted report
The documents obtained this week by The duty following this request do not, however, allow us to learn more about the project in which the Legault government intends to invest several hundred million dollars of public funds. The 71-page “accompanying technical report” written for Northvolt by the firm WSP is in fact heavily redacted.
The table of contents of this document dated December 21, 2023, however, tells us that it deals with the main issues related to construction, which could begin shortly, since the company is currently destroying more than 60,000 m2 of wetlands (on the 138,000 m2 which will be destroyed as part of the project) in order to prepare the site for the first building of its factory.
It is thus indicated, at the beginning of the report, that it includes a “description of the project”, the “stages of implementation”, the measures planned to “minimize the impacts on the environment”, the issues linked to “noise”, the “anticipated impacts on threatened and vulnerable species or their habitats”, but also on “the quality of the landscape” and “on wetlands and water environments”. There is also mention of an “environmental management plan” presented in the appendix to the report. All this information is redacted.
The document also addresses the risks for soil contamination, but also groundwater and surface water. It must be said that the site still contains contaminated soils resulting from its heavy industrial past. The land of the future factory also has numerous “areas to be rehabilitated in the future”, which therefore contain soils containing industrial contaminants. These toxic products could leak from the site, in particular through water discharges during the work, according to stakeholders consulted by The duty.
The pages of the WSP report relating to these elements were sent largely redacted. However, it mentions planned monitoring of water discharge from the site, as part of the work. These discharges will likely be directed towards the Richelieu River, but this information is not available in the document.
After receiving the document, The duty contacted the Ministry of Environment to request an unredacted copy. Our request “was sent to the Principal Directorate of Information, Access to Information, Ethics and Complaints” of the ministry.
The duty has suffered refusals and obtained heavily redacted documents in recent months, following various requests for access to information in the Northvolt file.
Transparency
On Wednesday, opposition parties in Quebec demanded more transparency from the Legault government in the Northvolt file. Environmental groups made a similar request, while again pleading for the completion of an independent environmental study, including a review by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
All information concerning the construction of the factory would have been made public if the promoter had had to carry out an impact study according to a “directive” transmitted by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment.
Tuesday morning, in an interview on the show All one morning, on the airwaves of ICI Première, the Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, defended the transparency of the government. “In the case of Northvolt, we put all the facts on the table and people will be able to decide,” he said, after maintaining that “certain media and journalists use certain facts in their own way to reach a conclusion that is not the right one.