Residents on Montreal's South Shore want environmental review of proposed EV battery plant

Nearly 150 residents of Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Que., on Montreal's South Shore, expressed their concerns Monday evening about a proposed multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant slated for their city.

Some 82 per cent of the land dedicated to Northvolt's new manufacturing facility about 170 hectares, or more than 300 football fields will be located in the municipality.The rest will be in the city of McMasterville.

Residents present at an information session with city officialsdenounced the fact that they were not consulted by the Swedish battery giant or the city before the project billed as the biggest private investment in Quebec history was announced with great fanfare last week.

They also raised concerns about pollution, the shortage of housing and road traffic around the plant site.

Long-time resident Pierre Trepanier wonders whether the land will be threatened and is also concerned about the impact of bringing in up to 3,000 new employees.

"We've already started thinking about moving," he said,arguing that traffic in the area is already unbearable and will only get worse.

Several residents are demanding that the project be submitted for review by Quebec's environmental watchdog, theBureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement(BAPE).

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Northvolt, a Swedish battery manufacturing giant, says it will build a new multibillion-dollar electric vehicle battery plant east of Montreal. Quebec leaders are calling it the largest private investment in the province's history along with billions in public funding but others say it carries no guarantees it will pay off for taxpayers.

Last week,Premier Franois Legault saidthe project would not be subject to an evaluation by the BAPE, as it didn't meet the threshold for one.

But that raised suspicions about the guidelines for a review, which some people said were conveniently amended several months ago.

In February, the threshold to trigger a review for cathode manufacturing increased from 50,000 to 60,000 tonnes. The Northvolt plant'sproduction capacity would be 56,000 tonnes.

Quebec Economy and Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon denied last week that the BAPE regulations were changed in preparation for Northvolt's project. He added all environmental rules will be respected when the plant is built.

Social acceptability

The mayor of Saint-Basile-le-Grand, Yves Lessard, says that there are a number of challenges to the success of this project, in particular housing and transportation.

"If we fail to find solutions to these two challenges, the social acceptability of the project may well crumble," he said.

"Here, we need to know the nature of the project and make sure that what we're proposing to the public passes the test."

Lessardsays the city will consult the population "step by step," and residents will have the opportunity to continue to have their say.

The mayor stressed, however, that the city cannot legally prevent the company from buying the land.

Northvolt will hold its first information sessionfor Saint-Basile-le-Grand residents on Thursday.