The Superior Court rejected the request for an injunction from the Quebec Environmental Law Center (CQDE) aimed at temporarily stopping the work to destroy wetlands and the felling of trees on the Northvolt site. The company responded by announcing the immediate resumption of operations on the ground which is home to rich biodiversity and endangered species.
Judge David R. Collier of the Superior Court rejected the request on Friday, emphasizing that “the balance of convenience” does not favor the request filed by the CQDE.
“The plaintiffs have not succeeded in putting forward serious arguments allowing them to doubt, at first glance, the validity of the ministerial authorization and the municipal permit. The strength of their arguments is not “commensurate with the obstacle to be overcome” and, therefore, the plaintiffs have not passed the color of right test,” he argues in his judgment.
“If the injunction is not issued, there is reason to believe that wetlands with an area of 13.8 ha [138 162 m2] will be destroyed or degraded on the Northvolt site. There will be a loss of a natural environment that is both rare and important for the environment of the region,” recognizes the judge. But, he adds, the destruction was “compensated” by Northvolt by paying the government an amount of $4.75 million.
“If there is a public interest in protecting the environment, there is also a public interest in protecting the legal certainty of activities authorized by the public administration,” he also wrote in his judgment.
“Northvolt contends that it will suffer enormous economic harm if its project is delayed or ultimately abandoned due to the delays. The Quebec government estimates that the Northvolt project is of great importance to the province’s economy and that it will create 3,000 new jobs when the factory is built. It is a “green” and structuring project for the province,” also underlines the 13-page judgment.
Wildlife “diversity”
The judgment also validates the decision of Saint-Basile-le-Grand to authorize Northvolt to encroach on a wetland targeted for its ecological value by the Montreal Metropolitan Community. We do not know to what extent these natural environments or the species that live there will be affected by the industrial project, since there has been no impact study. But the company assures that they will be restored in the years to come, as required by the government.
In its request for a provisional injunction, the CQDE argued that the Legault government refused last year to carry out a real estate project on the same site. Experts from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment then justified their decision by emphasizing the rich biodiversity of the land, the essential nature of the natural environments for the region and the “impressive diversity” of the fauna on the site.
In its refusal decision, dated March 2023, the government indicated at the same time that the diversity of ponds and marshes “provides a variety of habitats for living species, which allows the maintenance of biodiversity in a context where natural environments are rare and where agricultural practices and urban development homogenize the landscape.”
Resumption of work
“We are attacking a decision which benefits from a presumption of validity”, argued Wednesday Mr.e Stéphanie Garon, who represented the office of the Attorney General of Quebec during the hearing on the request for an injunction.
“Serious studies and analyzes have been carried out and many strict conditions have been met to obtain these permits. We will continue the preparatory work today given the favorable decision of the court,” Northvolt reacted Friday in a press release. “Over time and all over the world, we have been able to demonstrate that our projects meet some of the highest standards in the world and that our environmental protection standards are exemplary,” it was also argued.
“A serious concern remains,” reacted the CQDE. This approach, which consists of destroying now and protecting later, without knowing precisely where, when or how, is not reassuring in the context of the crisis of biodiversity loss,” said Marc Bishai, lawyer at CQDE. . “We will continue our efforts. Environmental protection and full public participation should be the guiding principles of all action by our governments, especially for major issues,” he added.
“We have one of the most rigorous environmental assessment frameworks in North America,” responded Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette.
Access to information
The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake also launched legal action on Tuesday against the governments of Quebec and Canada in the Northvolt case. The approach to the courts states that authorization for the project was granted without respecting “the duty to consult” of the First Nations.
As soon as the factory project was announced in September 2023, the Legault government rejected the idea of subjecting Northvolt to the environmental assessment procedure regularly used for large-scale industrial projects in Quebec. It must be said that last year the government modified the regulations which would have automatically submitted the project to this procedure. The changes came into effect on July 20, 2023; the project was announced on September 28.
The environmental assessment procedure would have involved carrying out an impact study based on a “directive” dealing with several points which should characterize the Northvolt factory project: social acceptability, repercussions on the local road network, climatic effects, impact on public health, consequences on natural environments and biodiversity, etc. A review by the Office of Environmental Public Hearings would then have been likely.
Currently, it is not easy, if not impossible, to obtain certain information regarding the Northvolt project, financed by Quebec taxpayers. The government initially refused to transmit to the Duty the documents filed by the company to obtain the necessary authorizations to fill in dozens of wetlands. We were able to obtain them using the Act respecting access to documents held by public bodies and the protection of personal information. The duty has also faced denials and obtained heavily redacted documents in recent months in response to requests under the same legislation.