The Quebec Ministry of the Environment refuses to answer questions about the Northvolt factory project, which it is currently analyzing, with a view to granting the promoter authorization to build this imposing industrial complex. The information will eventually be available, but only “when a decision is made.”
The Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) initially refused on Tuesday to transmit to the Duty the documents filed by Northvolt on December 22 to obtain the green light to build its “gigafactory”. Our request was referred to the Access to Information Act.
On Wednesday, the MELCCFP refused to answer two technical questions relating to the plant, namely what is planned in the context of “construction”, but also “rainwater management”. These two components of the project financed by the Government of Quebec are only mentioned in the register of “authorization requests submitted” to the ministry, without further details.
The ministry also refused to answer a question relating to the parking planned on the land which until now housed rich biodiversity, but also to one relating to the industrial system of pumping and discharging water into the Richelieu River.
“The authorization request submitted on December 22, 2023 is still under analysis by the ministry. The information will be disseminated when a decision is made,” the MELCCFP simply responded by email.
Transparency
Since the announcement of the project in September 2023, citizens of the region, but also environmental assessment experts and environmental groups have demanded that Northvolt be subject to the assessment procedure which has been imposed for several years on large industrial projects in the Quebec.
“We are concerned by the great lack of transparency shown by the parties involved in this project since its infancy,” recently wrote 180 signatories of a letter sent to the minister responsible for the MELCCFP, Benoit Charette. “The haste with which this major project is being carried out also worries us,” they added.
“We have one of the most rigorous environmental assessment frameworks in North America,” Minister Benoit Charette said last week, after the rejection of a request for an injunction aimed at stopping the work. destruction of wetlands and plant cover which is underway on the Northvolt site.
If the factory project had been subject to the same environmental assessment as other large industrial projects, all information would be published continuously in the “Register of Environmental Assessments”, which is accessible to everyone. It would include the promoter’s impact study, which would detail in particular all the technical aspects of the plant, the environmental and social impacts of the project, water management issues, etc. And we could also consult the questions asked by the different ministries, as well as the promoter’s responses.
Wildlife advisory
None of this is currently available for the Northvolt project. Following a request for access to information, The duty however, obtained this Wednesday, January 31, the wildlife opinion dated October 19 which was taken into account in the analysis leading to the authorization for the destruction of wetlands granted on January 8.
The duty had already obtained the document from a source familiar with the matter. A text detailing the findings of this opinion, as well as the MELCCFP’s final analysis, was published on Monday. These documents demonstrate that the natural environments that are currently being razed have a “high ecological value”.
Now that the Legault government has authorized this first phase of the project, the general director of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud, nevertheless pleads for an evaluation of the project to pump and discharge water into the river Richelieu.
“The critical situation of the copper redhorse requires a rigorous analysis of the impacts of the plant on the Richelieu River, an analysis impossible to do without transparency. The precautionary principle should prevail in this matter, especially since alternatives to pumping water into the river exist,” he argues.