More than a hundred people from the Mères au front group demonstrated in front of the offices of Prime Minister François Legault on Sunday to demand an investigation by the Office of Public Hearings into the Environment (BAPE) into the Northvolt project.
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The group wants Quebec to ensure that this multi-billion dollar factory project respects the environmental rules of the game.
However, the demonstrators do not say they are against the project.
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“We don’t say no to Northvolt, we say yes to a BAPE before Northvolt,” explains the group’s interim general coordinator, Myriam Thériault. We could even settle for a BAPE which would be in a slightly smaller version.
“We never said that we were against the project. Polls still show that people are not very satisfied with the way the government has managed this and people are in favor of holding a BAPE,” she adds.
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Members of the group denounce a lack of transparency on the part of the government.
“It’s to ask for democracy which is a BAPE,” says a demonstrator. We’ve wanted one from the start. The rules were changed from 50,000 to 60,000. We didn’t hear about that, it’s undemocratic.”
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This is not the first time that Mothers at the Front has organized a sit-in or a demonstration in front of the Prime Minister’s offices, although this type of event is organized every month by the group.
This demonstration comes a few days after the publication of a Léger survey which reveals that 80% of residents of Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville approve of the Northvolt project and that 65% of respondents agree with the holding of a BAPE before the installation of this mega-factory.
See the full explanation in the video above