BAPE for a national park, but not for Northvolt: “Can we be sustainable?”

While the Quebec government has been inconsistent in requesting investigations from the Bureau of Environmental Public Hearings (BAPE) for the expansion of national parks, it did not request one for the Northvolt project, according to political analyst Philippe-Vincent Foisy.

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During his comment on the “Le Québec matin” show, the columnist indicated that he understood the use of BAPE in such a case, but it was ironic that it was needed for a national park, but not for an industrial project. Humid climate.

“It's okay to have BAPEs, that's what the environment is for,” he said. But you say yourself in Quebec, expanding the parks is serious, we are doing BAPEs, but when we have a huge industrial project next to a river near Montreal on wetlands, there is no BAPE.

“There, can we be a little more coherent? He asks. Sometimes it's good to be a little more consistent about these things. Why do we need BAPE there when we say Northvolt is right when Mont Orford is wrong with all the scandals and all? Sometimes I tell myself that we are not asking the right questions in the right places.”

All in all, Mr. Foisy welcomed Quebec's $922 million investment in the protection of natural environments.

However, the Legault government is far from its goal, he said.

“When there's good news, we have to take it,” he says. It would be great if we were willing to put up about a billion dollars. However, we are still not able to reach our target of 30%, because that is the target we have set for 2030. We see that it's quick and it's expensive.

Watch Philippe-Vincent Foisy's full analysis in the video above