Northvolt factory project in Montérégie | No political interference, says Benoit Charette

The official who associated the authorization given to Northvolt to destroy wetlands with a “government order” was not familiar with the file, indicated the Minister of the Environment Benoit Charette. He assures “that no political pressure” was exerted on the employees in charge of the file.

“He is a civil servant who works in the East, who is not at all associated with the process […] he was never involved in the case. He wondered if we turned corners, the question is legitimate,” explained Mr. Charette in an interview with The Press.

The minister was reacting to a report from Radio-Canada, which cited two messages written by the coordinator of the analysis and expertise team of the Ministry of the Environment for the Bas-Saint-Laurent region, Ghislain Côté.

According to Mr. Côté, the authorization granted by the ministry to the Swedish company to destroy wetlands is a “government order”. He believes that the ministry has agreed to play the game of politics and to put aside its mission for the moment of a file.

“If it’s a decision that falls to the minister, take responsibility for it. There Environmental Quality Act gives you the right to do so, but do not place a burden on the teams which normally work in complete independence,” said Mr. Côté in these messages, which he addressed to the minister and senior officials, on 21 and February 25.

Subsequently, explained Mr. Charette, the senior leaders of the ministry “decided to convene people from all over the ministry” to explain “what happened” in the Northvolt case, and to plead that the job was well done. “It was not me who asked to organize this meeting,” he said.

No interference, according to the SPGQ

Mr. Charette insists that there was no political interference. It is based on an article from La Presse Canadienne published on February 27 where the Union of Government Professionals of Quebec (SPGQ) defends the biologist who wrote two divergent analyzes concerning the site where the battery cell factory should be built Northvolt, in Montérégie.

The president of the union, Guillaume Bouvrette, claims that the civil servant assured him that she had not been subjected to political pressure during a conversation with him. “She had no political pressure regarding the conclusions” of her reports, he said.

Mr. Charette emphasizes that analyst Côté does not have to fear facing a sanction for having written his message since his approach was legitimate.