Dozens of environmental groups, unions, doctors, citizen groups and academics sent a letter to Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, to demand more “transparency” in the Northvolt file, but also a environmental assessment of the industrial project, which was “eagerly” approved.
“We are concerned by the great lack of transparency shown by the parties involved in this project since its infancy,” write the 180 signatories of this letter, obtained by The duty.
In addition to environmental groups, it was signed by the Quebec Association of Physicians for the Environment, the Centrale des syndicats du Québec, the Common Front for the Energy Transition, the Mothers at the Front group, the Central Council of Montreal métropolitain-CSN, the autonomous federation of education, academics and biodiversity protection organizations from different Quebec regions.
“The haste with which this major project is being carried out also worries us,” they add. The signatories also believe that there is a “perception” that environmental regulations have been modified “specifically for the Northvolt project”, which “greatly harms the social acceptability of the project and undermines public confidence” .
The regulatory changes that allowed Northvolt to escape the environmental review required for large industrial projects came into effect on July 20, 2023. The project, financed by Quebec and Ottawa, was announced on September 28.
Minister Benoit Charette could nevertheless have recommended to the ministerial cabinet to submit the project to a process including the completion of an impact study, public consultations and an examination by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE). But he did not do it. “We are going to want this great project to be carried out as quickly as possible,” he argued last fall, before his ministry granted the authorizations requested by Northvolt to destroy natural environments.
In this context, the letter sent on January 19 once again asks Minister Charette to “recommend” the holding of a complete evaluation of the most important industrial project in recent decades. This could take the form of an examination which would lead to a passage by the BAPE, or that of a “strategic environmental assessment of the entire battery sector, so that each project in this expanding sector is not not evaluated individually.”
“An independent environmental assessment is the best way to analyze the concerns of civil society and scientists”, but also “to carry out projects that respect standards and to identify whether there are realistic solutions to minimize their impacts on the environment,” argue the signatories. They recall in the same breath that the site chosen by the company “is of particular importance for biodiversity”, even in the opinion of experts from the Quebec government.
General Director of Nature Québec, Alice-Anne Simard also deplores the public outing of the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, who said he was worried on Monday about the message sent to potential investors due to the request for an injunction filed by the Quebec Environmental Law Center to stop work on the Northvolt site.
“By wanting to circumvent the rules, it is the government which risks causing worry for investors, who will not know what to expect for their projects. Clear environmental regulations that apply to everyone are the best way to create predictability. Besides, we are not rejecting projects in the battery sector, but we have to do things well and apply the regulations, which include environmental studies,” explains M.me Simard, signatory of the letter sent to Minister Benoit Charette.
Does the minister intend to recommend an environmental assessment for the Northvolt mega-factory, as requested by the signatories of the letter he has just received? The duty contacted the minister’s office in the morning of Tuesday. As of early evening, we had not received an answer to this question.