After the popular initiative referendums, the citizen initiative “BAPE”. Québec solidaire wants environmental assessments of major projects to be initiated through petitions, which would subject the controversial Northvolt project to an investigation by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE).
Solidarity MP Alejandra Zaga Mendez tabled a bill on Thursday at the Salon Bleu which would trigger a BAPE study process upon the submission of a petition of at least 15,000 signatures for a “major” project. regional” and 40,000 signatures for a “national-scale” project.
Bill 597 thus aims to create “a right of citizen initiative” to force the holding of a public hearing of the BAPE. For the moment, only the Minister of the Environment can give a mandate to the consultation body. In the case of the controversial Northvolt battery assembly project, Minister Benoit Charette refused to do so, except for a portion of the project which will only happen after the construction of the gigafactory on the South Shore of Montreal .
A few weeks before granting a multibillion-dollar subsidy to the Swedish manufacturer, the Quebec government raised the battery manufacturing standard which automatically subjects a project to a BAPE evaluation.
“There is an issue of trust, there is an issue of transparency when we change regulations and, suddenly, no project in the battery sector is submitted to the BAPE,” thundered Alejandra Zaga Mendez, Thursday . ” The law project […] provides a tool to populations, to citizens who wish to have a BAPE. »
For an evaluation to be initiated at the national level, a petition with at least 40,000 signatories should contain at least 5,000 supports from three different regions, the legislative text provides. For a local file or project, it should consist of at least 7,500 signatures from the region concerned.
“An important project”
It is the government that has the prerogative to call opposition bills. There is therefore no guarantee that M’s proposalme Zaga Mendez will be studied. The Minister of the Environment also stressed in the House on Thursday that “no BAPE does not mean no environmental assessment”.
Asked by Mme Zaga Mendez during question period after the submission by solidarity worker Haroun Bouazzi of a petition requesting the holding of a BAPE in the Northvolt case, Mr. Charette justified his government’s position.
“It’s an important project for the environment and it’s an important project for the economy. Quebec can also boast of having one of the most established and strict environmental assessment processes in the world. Not only do we need these batteries to electrify our transport and to decarbonize our economy, but these batteries are among the greenest currently produced,” he said.
To the solidarity elected official who criticized him for “scraping” wetlands, the minister responded that the plant would preserve “the most precious parts of the land” and that there would be “significant” financial compensation of 4.75 millions of dollars.
Approximately 138,000 m2 wetlands will be destroyed on Northvolt land, and several threatened species live there.