Only one portion of the Northvolt industrial megaproject should be subject to review by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE), but only once the plant is built and already in operation. The environmental assessment will therefore not take into account the destruction of the natural environments of the site, which is home to rich biodiversity.
The Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) has not yet granted the necessary authorizations to Northvolt to destroy wetlands on the site where the factory will be built, once deforestation is completed. The ministry has also not announced whether its analysis of the file submitted by the multinational has been completed.
The minister responsible for the MELCCFP, Benoit Charette, nevertheless announced in an interview with Radio-Canada that only one phase of the industrial project will be subject to an examination by the BAPE, which must normally be preceded by the completion of an impact study of the project carried out according to criteria determined by the ministry.
According to what Northvolt indicated Friday at Dutythis is the third phase of the project, that of “battery recycling”, which is only scheduled to come into operation in 2028.
This means that the two preceding phases, namely those involving “cell assembly” of car batteries and “manufacturing of active cathode material” would not be subject to BAPE examination.
Concretely, the multinational will therefore be able to move forward with several stages of its project, including the construction of the factory, without going through the environmental assessment procedure normally provided for in Quebec for large-scale industrial projects. This assessment would have made it possible to analyze the environmental, social and economic impacts of the project.
Minister Charette’s office and the MELCCFP had not responded to our questions at the time these lines were written.
Changed rules
In a press release published Friday morning around 8:00 a.m., Northvolt said it welcomed the MELCCFP’s decision. However, this had not yet been announced by the ministry as of Friday noon. “This decision is the result of a rigorous evaluation of Northvolt Six’s manufacturing and industrial processes by the ministry,” according to the company. This analysis was not available Friday noon.
The first phases of the project, which aim to establish the Northvolt project on the site and commission the plant, will therefore not be subject to a BAPE evaluation, as demanded by experts and environmental groups.
It must be said that the Legault government modified the rules which determine whether such a project is subject to the procedure just a few weeks before the project was announced. From now on, battery factories are covered by a provision which sets the threshold of liability at an annual production capacity of 60,000 metric tonnes. Northvolt plans production of 56,000 tonnes, according to available information.
Natural environments
In an interview with Radio-Canada, Minister Benoit Charette also said that he did not want to use the power provided by the legislation and which would allow him to recommend that the government submit the project to an environmental assessment before authorizing its construction.
This means that no impact study of the project will be produced by the company, which is awaiting authorization from the MELCCFP to destroy wetlands present on the site. In this preparatory phase, it is also planned to deforest most of the land recently purchased thanks to a loan from Investissement Québec.
According to what revealed The duty last week, these works, which will destroy the habitats of endangered species, were planned even before the publicly funded megaproject obtained the necessary environmental authorizations.
The area of fallow natural environments and wetlands that will be destroyed is around 40 hectares, or 400,000 square meters. It is one of the last natural environments of its kind in the region, where the occupation of the territory has already caused virtually all natural environments to disappear.
The environments found on the Northvolt site serve as habitat for several dozen species, including some “threatened” or “endangered” which are protected by the federal government’s Species at Risk Act. At least 142 species of birds frequent the site, some of which are threatened.
Everything indicates, however, that the Trudeau government will not prevent Northvolt from destroying the habitat of endangered species to build its mega-factory, even if these species are protected by federal law. The reason: it is private land.