Citizens who will have to live with the future Northvolt factory deplore the lack of “transparency” from the Legault government, but also the absence of public consultations and an environmental assessment before it moves forward with this imposing industrial project. which will be carried out using public funds.
“The project was imposed on us without consultation. It was presented as a fait accompli, and it was felt that the government was in a hurry to impose it. He wants to put a lot of public money into this project without questioning the important issues for residents, but also for the citizens of Quebec,” laments Sabrina Guilbert, spokesperson for the citizens’ committee set up to try to obtain right now on the Northvolt factory.
Discussions had already taken place between representatives of Northvolt and the Legault government several months before the project was announced last September. However, citizens were not involved, and they only learned of the mega-factory coming to their region at the time of the press conference which at the same time confirmed financial aid from Quebec and Ottawa.
The government then closed the door to an evaluation which would have involved the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE), therefore to an independent analysis which would have allowed the formulation of recommendations for the implementation of the project in the environment. .
“We are neither for nor against the project, however, maintains Mme Guilbert. But we believe that the government lacks transparency, and to enlighten us on the best decision to make, there would need to be an environmental assessment and a review of the BAPE. Given the scale of the project in Quebec, the investments, the size of the project and the labor requirements, it is unlikely, in our opinion, that the project will not go through this evaluation. »
Social consequences
The committee, which brings together residents of McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand and which wishes to create links in the Montérégie region, believes that several issues deserve to pass the test of this “independent” evaluation that the Quebec minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, had the power to recommend.
Sabrina Guilbert cites the protection of the site’s biodiversity as an example, but she insists on the effects that the heavy road traffic will have in the region, the challenges in terms of housing, the potential consequences for the company workforce. local or even nuisances of all kinds that could be imposed on residents of the area. The factory could employ nearly 3,000 people.
All these questions would be raised as part of an examination of the BAPE, she recalls, since the organization has the mandate to evaluate the social and economic consequences of industrial projects. Such an evaluation has also been carried out for several major projects in recent years. Northvolt would have had to go through the same process if the rules requiring an environmental assessment had not been changed a few weeks before construction was announced.
Instead of a full evaluation of the factory project which would have included public consultations, the Legault government had planned meetings with residents of the region. However, these have been postponed “to a later date”.
The City of McMasterville has also posted a page dedicated to the project online. The first sentence specifies that the municipal administration “very favorably” welcomes the arrival of the factory. This page presents information similar to that disclosed by Northvolt. It does not mention anything concerning the biodiversity of the site and it also indicates that we do not yet know the extent of road traffic that will result from the project.
Petition
For the citizens’ committee, this way of proceeding on the part of the City and the government is not reassuring. “This information leads us to believe that the government is more interested in moving quickly than in meeting the population. But we cannot ignore the issues and have to live with the impacts afterwards,” argues Sabrina Guilbert.
In addition to wanting to mobilize their peers via their Facebook page “Northvolt Project: information, discussions”, citizens hope to collect signatures for the petition launched on the National Assembly website to demand a BAPE review of the Northvolt project. . As of Monday, it had collected 1,515 signatures.
Northvolt specifies by email that three meetings with citizens took place after the September announcement. The company also says it is putting in place the means to explain the phases of the project, but also answer questions and “meet groups representing citizens”.
The Legault government, for its part, is continuing its game plan in support of Northvolt. He recently granted $22 million to Saint-Basile-le-Grand to finance the development of a “temporary access road” for the construction of the factory. Financial support of $200 million was also granted by Investissement Québec for “financing preliminary activities”, which includes the destruction of the natural environments of the site currently being renaturalized.
At the time of publication of this text, the Quebec Ministry of the Environment had not responded to our questions.