By exempting the Northvolt Six project from audits by the Bureau d’audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE) to attract its promoter to Quebec, Minister Benoit Charette failed to fulfill his main task: that of protecting the environment, the groups believe. opposition in the National Assembly.
“We knew the CAQ government was insensitive to environmental issues and the climate crisis, but at this point, it’s surreal,” thundered the spokesperson for the official liberal opposition on the fight against climate change on Wednesday. , Virginie Dufour. She had just heard the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, admit that Northvolt would never have chosen Quebec if it had had to be subject to a BAPE examination.
During a round of interviews Tuesday and Wednesday morning, the elected official from the Coalition Avenir Québec agreed to have “adapted Quebec environmental regulations” to allow projects in the battery sector to be exempt from the analysis process of the BAPE. All this in the context of a “global race” in the production of batteries and electric cars.
The “giga-factory” of the Swedish company Northvolt is one of the projects which will therefore not come under the microscope of the independent environmental hearing body, despite its location on land rich in biodiversity straddling McMasterville and Sainte-Basile- great.
With a BAPE, “it’s certain [que Northvolt] would have chosen another location to set up,” said Mr. Charette in an interview on Radio-Canada radio on Wednesday, adding that the entire process would have taken at least 18 months. Interview requests from Duty were refused.
Quebecers “misled”
“Mr. Charette is the Quebec minister of the environment, but he protects neither Quebec nor the environment,” lamented Wednesday in a press release the spokesperson for Quebec solidaire in matters of environment, Alejandra Zaga Mendez.
” Once again, [il] puts Quebecers before a false dilemma: the energy transition can and must be achieved, but social acceptability and respect for environmental standards must be there,” she said, while reiterating her requests to see Northvolt submitted once and for all to the BAPE.
During a speech in Quebec last week, the Minister of the Economy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, questioned reports which indicated that Quebec had modified its regulations to allow Northvolt to avoid a lengthy environmental assessment process. . “Some journalists and opposition parties claim that the rules were changed so that Northvolt could avoid a BAPE. I hope you understand that this is completely false,” he said.
” The Minister [Charette] admits having misled Quebecers for weeks about changing the rules. He admits that Northvolt obtained all the desired privileges,” replied the PQ environmental critic, Joël Arseneau, in a written statement sent on Wednesday.
“ [Il] proves through its declarations that it denies its responsibilities to protect the environment, ensure the conservation and development of biodiversity and play a key role in the climate transition, from a sustainable perspective, to play the cheerleaders manufacturing development,” he continued.
Before changing its environmental rules in February 2023, a project like Northvolt would have been subject to the procedure as a “chemical manufacturing” plant. In this category, companies whose annual capacity exceeds 50,000 metric tons
However, the Legault government’s regulatory changes have created a new category of factories: those that produce “energy storage equipment”. For these, the BAPE threshold has increased to 60,000 t. Northvolt will have a capacity of approximately 56,000 t.