Let’s start by setting the table.
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The creation of a new industry, that of the battery sector, is an exciting project, a real success for François Legault and Pierre Fitzgibbon.
A modern and promising industrial project for the coming decades.
Northvolt
Now, all this should not blind us to the rest.
There are downsides. Significant downsides.
Currently, construction of the Northvolt factory, a centerpiece for the battery industry, is at a standstill due to legal action.
Environmental groups contest the fact that the project is being carried out in haste and without transparency. And above all, they are demanding an evaluation of the BAPE – which is the main environmental consultation and evaluation tool.
For some, this downside would already be excessive.
Environmental groups are accused of being dogmatic and against economic development. Minister Fitzgibbon associates this with an “outpouring of hostility” against Northvolt.
This is a very bad trial.
All environmental groups initially welcomed the project. No one really disputes this.
On the other hand, what they are asking for, and rightly so, is transparency from government. Especially when we invest seven billion dollars in public money.
What is the point of an institution like the BAPE – or what is the point of project evaluation tools at all – if they are not used for “the most important industrial project in the history of Quebec”?
Such an industrial sector, such a project, having such effects on the territory, agricultural land, electricity production, endangered species and living environments deserves a public discussion.
It is an ecological, social, but above all democratic question.
In question
It is a very narrow conception of the Ministry of the Environment which is at stake here, which is considered to be the Ministry of Prevention.
A Ministry of the Environment worthy of its name would trust the BAPE and would not be a yes-man from the Ministry of the Economy and the demands of a multinational, however useful it may be for our future.