“A little less than 9,000 living trees will be cut down,” confirmed a Northvolt spokesperson during a press visit carefully orchestrated by the company, Tuesday noon, on the grounds of the controversial future factory in Saint-Basile. -great.
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“If there is a tree that we can keep, we keep it,” assured Laurent Therrien of Northvolt, in the press scrum, to announce that the company has obtained authorization from the Ministry of the Environment to begin deforestation in the coming days.
Tuesday morning, Northvolt invited journalists to attend a technical presentation of the project in a hotel in Beloeil, in La Vallée-du-Richelieu.
The media were then invited to board mini gasoline buses to see with their own eyes the grounds of the future factory, which still hopes to be able to deliver its first battery in mid-2026.
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Skinny trees
Along the way, we could see remains of the old pipeline from the time of the former Canadian Industries Limited (CIL) explosives factory.
Part of the land has remains of the old explosives factory.
Photo Francis Halin
The Northvolt representatives then stopped on a portion of the land where the trees were often skinny, in bad shape or downright dead.
Photos provided by the company to journalists showed land with very little wilderness, although an endangered species like the spiny softshell turtle has been observed near the site in recent times.
Photo provided by Northvolt to journalists
In addition to committing to planting 24,000 trees, Northvolt specified that it will pay $4.5 million into a fund since it will have to destroy certain wetlands. The company also promised to protect between 30 to 50 hectares of natural environments.
“We are not asking for privileges”
While some question the speed with which Northvolt obtained its authorizations, the company once again had to defend itself from having been entitled to special treatment.
Laurent Therrien, spokesperson for Northvolt, assures that the company does everything it can to protect the environment.
Photo Francis Halin
“We are not asking for a privilege or an accelerated mechanism to obtain permits,” we swore.
In total, between 15 and 30 authorizations are still necessary to be able to carry out the entire project.
Last September, The newspaper had reported the fears of McMasterville residents who refuse to see one of the largest battery factories in the world land in their backyard.
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