Hearings regarding the request for an injunction that was filed against Northvolt are scheduled to resume Tuesday morning at the Montreal courthouse.
The procedure began last week, but Judge David R. Collier of the Superior Court of Quebec postponed the hearing on the requests for provisional and interlocutory injunctions until Tuesday.
The Swedish multinational began tree felling work at the beginning of last week on the site of its future battery factory in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand, in Montérégie.
However, this work was put on hold while the Superior Court examined the request for an injunction filed by the Quebec Environmental Law Center and three citizens.
The Quebec Environmental Law Center and the three citizens argue that the work at the factory is “worrying for biodiversity” and that the multinational’s land is a “habitat for many threatened or vulnerable animal species.”
Last Friday, Judge Collier postponed the hearing until Tuesday, in particular to allow the defendants to read the file.
In the meantime, Northvolt could not carry out “tree felling work in wetlands and 500 meters from them” on the site of the future factory, the judge ruled.
A provisional injunction normally lasts 10 days, but the Quebec Environmental Law Center and the three citizens are also requesting an interlocutory injunction.
For her part, the lawyer representing Northvolt said last Friday that a 10-day provisional injunction “would cause irreparable harm” to the company.
The planned site for the construction of the battery manufacturing and recycling plant is located on 171 hectares of land in Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville.