RE:CEZinc listed... Here is a translation of most of it:
The Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda is not the only one to benefit from a right to pollute beyond the standards. In total, the Government of Quebec has signed agreements with 89 companies, which allows them to legally derogate from the legislation in force.
Precision :
The 89 companies do not all have the right to pollute beyond the standards, corrected the Minister of the Environment Benoit Charette, on August 20. Only a minority can. Their number and the names of those who can derogate from environmental law will soon be revealed.
At our request, the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change provided us with the complete list [available at the end of this text] of decontamination certificates issued to industries. There are mainly paper mills, but also many mines and aluminum smelters.
Major companies are in the group, including Rio Tinto, Arcelor Mittal, Lafarge, Tata Steel, Kruger, Cascades and Resolute Forest Products.
As in Rouyn-Noranda, some plants are located in urban areas. This is the case in Montreal, Quebec, Saguenay, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivires or Gatineau.
The depollution attestation (henceforth called ministerial authorization) establishes the environmental conditions under which the company must carry out its activities. It thus allows him to derogate from certain standards.
This agreement is reserved for a company that existed before a new anti-pollution regulation came into force. It's a sort of grandfather clause.
The agreement is renewable every five years. It is precisely in November that the decontamination certificate for the Horne Foundry expires. It will be its second renewal.
So far, this agreement allows the company to have no ceiling to respect for the release of contaminants into the air, except for arsenic, whose emissions can reach 33 times the Quebec standard.
In its public statements, the Legault government mentions “accompaniment” of companies towards a reduction in their polluting discharges. With each renewal, the Ministry of the Environment must tighten the screw a little more.
Beyond the list, it is not easy to know which precise standards these companies can avoid and which are the requirements imposed by the government during the renewal. To find out, you have to make a request for access to documents, which is sent to each regional branch of the department. What we have done. But it can take a long time to get everything.
"That's really worrying," says lawyer for the Quebec Center for Environmental Law (CQDE) Anne-Sophie Dor.
“We suddenly realize that we have created a special regime, which was not so clear as that. And that people's right to a healthy environment can be violated without informing the public of the situation. »
— A quote from Anne-Sophie Dor, lawyer at the CQDE