Animal carcass collector Sanimax, often singled out for odor problems, has reached an agreement with Montreal to put an end to a long legal saga. The company will have to build a storage garage and an air purification system by 2025, as well as a water treatment plant by 2027.
“We finally see the light at the end of the tunnel. What we hope is that with this agreement, young people will not think of their childhood neighborhood with the smell of animal carcasses in mind. It proves that it is worth defending your environmental regulations in court,” insists the VP of the executive committee and mayor of Rivière-des-Prairies–Pointe-aux-Trembles, Caroline Bourgeois.
In an interview, the CEO of Sanimax, Martial Hamel, said he was satisfied “to have managed to sit everyone down and find a satisfactory agreement”.
“I really see it as a new beginning. This will allow us to normalize our relations with the City again, and it will improve communication. We are resolutely looking to the future,” he whispers on this subject, admitting that the situation had become “complicated” with the numerous ongoing disputes.
Initially specializing in the recovery of dead farm animals, Sanimax has been receiving complaints from residents for years, either for animal carcasses left in the street or for odor problems. For more than ten years, the City and the company had several recourses before the Court to resolve disputes related to nuisances.
In the summer of 2021, the cities of Montreal, Lévis and Saint-Hyacinthe had received an unprecedented number of complaints against the company. Since January of that year, this alone had been the subject of 46% of air quality complaints recorded throughout the metropolis.
Major projects
Three major projects will be included in the agreement. This also includes the government of Quebec, which participated closely in the negotiations. First, Sanimax will have to build a garage by March 2025 to store its animal materials indoors, in order to reduce odors.
This idea had already been mentioned in the regulation “on atmospheric releases”, adopted in 2022 by the Metropolitan Community of Montreal (CMM). However, Sanimax judged that this regulation misunderstood its realities.
By December 2025, the company will also have to equip itself with a main air purification system across its entire site. “In terms of odors, it will be a huge gain for citizens. It’s something we’re proud of,” rejoices Mme Bourgeois.
The main entrance for raw material trucks will be moved to the 7e street and landscaping will take place on Maurice-Duplessis Boulevard. Sanimax will finally have to build a water treatment plant by July 2027 to comply with environmental standards for ammonia concentration. The new building will be adjacent to the current factory.
In 2022, justice gave the company until May 2024 to radically reduce the quantity of ammonia that it sends into Montreal’s sewers and which ends up directly in the St. Lawrence River. The company then said it was unable to correct the situation before May 2027, a message which therefore seems to have been heard.
A consultation in sight
All these changes will be made possible thanks to the creation of a special intervention zone (ZIS) on the site. A ZIS is a measure that the government can take to establish a given territory where specific rules replace standard regulations in terms of development and town planning.
This will ensure that the company will not need to request zoning changes in Quebec to build its water purification plant. However, a public consultation must take place in the coming months to validate the entry into application of this ZIS, as required by law.
Between the lines, we understand that Quebec, which played a role of “facilitator” in the discussions, was especially keen to preserve the implications of the food chain, the players who can carry out rendering in Quebec do not number in the thousands. The Montreal factory had also threatened to close its doors if the Plante administration applied the initial CMM regulations.
“This is the culmination of several months of work. I can tell you that there is a lot of juice behind these negotiations,” says the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, André Lamontagne. “The government didn’t get there by imposing anything. Confidence was progressive. We could not erase all these years of difficulties in a few hours,” he adds, welcoming the “openness” of both parties.
Martial Hamel assures that his group will do everything possible to meet the deadlines set by the agreement, both for the garage and for the purification system and the water treatment plant. “We are already working to meet these deadlines. For the factory, for example, we are already at level 3 engineering design,” says Mr. Hamel. “We really hope that this agreement is proof that through dialogue, we can establish lasting solutions,” concludes the CEO.