Northvolt factory: they want a complete environmental study to avoid a worrying “precedent”

Opponents of the Northvolt megaproject stormed the streets of McMasterville on Sunday to demand a complete study from the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE) and avoid a dangerous “precedent”.

• Read also: Northvolt will not make a profit for several years and that is normal, according to its co-founder

• Read also: Environmental assessment: the regulatory framework existed before the project, assures the CEO of Northvolt

• Read also: Battery factory: Northvolt creates a committee to involve citizens

• Read also: Northvolt mega-factory project: Charette must play her role as Minister of the Environment, according to organizations calling for a BAPE

“It’s important that it’s something that will last over time. Currently, we are thinking about today, for tomorrow, but we are not thinking about in 10 years, 20 years,” laments Jessica Boutin, accompanied by her children aged 3 and 6.

They were among some 250 demonstrators who paraded through the streets of McMasterville, a neighboring town to Saint-Basile-le-Grand. The land that the Northvolt battery recycling plant should occupy straddles the two municipalities.

Thus, citizens made themselves heard from the McMasterville station to the town hall.

“The living before money!”, “Big project, complete BAPE!” among other things, they chanted.

A coalition of Montérégie groups, including the Citizen Action Committee: Northvolt project, was behind the event.

At the dawn of this “funeral” march, the coalition held a ceremony with ironic and humorous connotations.

Concepts written on posters, such as wetlands or the Richelieu River, were symbolically abandoned one by one in a coffin.

“Citizens and many organizations are mobilizing to obtain a transparent evaluation,” argued Sabrina Guilbert, of the Citizen Action Committee, in a press release.

Several complaints

Citizens approached by The newspaper took turns listing their concerns.

For example, the Swedish company will undergo a BAPE assessment, but only for part of its project.

“It’s a bad habit that the State is getting into, of bypassing an important process,” underlines Denis Barette, from Montreal. There is no assessment of the impacts and consequences.”

For Jessica Boutin, among other things, we must consider the impacts on “traffic, the health of the people who will live around” the factory.

Ideas and opinions

On an economic level, Julie Raby, of Otterburn Park, believes that taxpayers have the right to have as much information as possible on the file.

The newspaper reported last November that Quebec had committed to injecting nearly $1.4 billion in public aid of all kinds into Northvolt and up to $1.5 billion in incentives if production is going well.

At the same time, its co-founder and president of North America, Paolo Cerruti, recently stated that the manufacturer did not expect to make a profit for several more years, but that this was completely normal.

In such a context, “it takes a BAPE, just to hear more about it,” insists Julie Raby, who lives not far from the work site.

In response to Sunday’s demonstration, Northvolt said in a statement sent to the QMI Agency that it believed “in the importance of the exchange of ideas and opinions.”

“We announced the creation of a liaison committee in order to inform local residents, listen to expectations and concerns and identify avenues for improvement,” we mention.