The social acceptability of a project or policy is closely linked to public participation: in fact, the citizens affected by a project have the legitimacy to express their views on the risks and the configuration of the territory they occupy. The state must therefore take their concerns into account when the time comes to decide the fate of a project or a company. But public participation is not intended to replace democratically established standards for the entire population, which it is up to the state to apply.
By requiring the population of Rouyn-Noranda to decide the fate of the Horne Foundry, the government is avoiding its responsibility to apply legitimate standards. By putting a multinational and a weakened population back to back, the suggested participation transforms the health of the population into a negotiable issue, which would be paid for by significant job losses. It is a participation that does not meet the criteria of a legitimate participatory mechanism.
What are these criteria ?
First, informed participation. In the case that concerns us, the citizens of the city probably have in hand the information necessary for an enlightened reflection, among other things thanks to the data of the World Health Organization or those of the public health department. Experience also shows us that citizens are able to appropriate scientific data, to understand them in order to make a relevant contribution. In the case of the Horne Foundry, part of this first condition for participation therefore does not pose a particular problem.
It is difficult, on the other hand, to think that participation, however enlightened it may be, can be done freely. The Horne Foundry is a major employer in the region, and its activities support many suppliers. The company thus occupies a hegemonic position, exercising its ascendancy over a very large part of the population (which family does not have a father-in-law or a cousin who works for the company?). It is impossible, under these conditions, to ignore these ties and these power relations to come to a free debate on the question of the survival of the company. The citizens of Rouyn-Noranda are reduced to choosing between the health of their children and their paycheque, a choice they should not be faced with.
Then, the process envisaged for consulting citizens, the referendum, poses a problem. Social acceptability is a collective judgment, necessarily influenced by social interactions around an issue. The participatory mechanisms that can be envisaged during tense debates must thus make it possible to put all the arguments for or against a project (here, a company) flat out, to weigh them against the concerns and values involved (even if it means eliminating the arguments unfounded), and then prioritize them to determine which should have more weight in the decision.
If the process does not necessarily lead to consensus, far from it, it at least allows everyone to discuss on common grounds. A referendum does not make it possible to build such collective foundations. Worse, by leaving everyone the choice to decide the fate of the company without making the effort to understand all the points of view present, it contributes to dividing the communities.
Finally, it seems dangerous to us to limit the debate around the Horne Foundry to the municipality of Rouyn-Noranda alone. The effects of industrial activities on air quality are an issue discussed elsewhere — think of the dust in the Limoilou district in Quebec City, or the fumes from the Anacolor company in Cap-Rouge — and it is healthy that we wonder, as a society, what we are ready to accept in the name of economic activity.
Summoning public participation in this context diverts the very essence of participatory democracy. The government instrumentalizes participation in order to evade its responsibilities: to impose on the company the standards applicable to everyone throughout Quebec, and to ensure the health of the population.
Moreover, at the same time, the government also has a role to play in leading a collective reflection on the future of the region, with a view to diversifying the economy. It is here that public participation would take on its full meaning.