Social Acceptability: Five Villages in Outauais Take François Legault at His Word

Elected officials of five villages surrounding a graphite mine project led by Lomico Metals with the help of the American Department of Defense decided to take the Legault government at its word and take it upon themselves to measure the level of social acceptability of their population. .

“Citizens came to see me, saying they heard drills on the other side of the lake. I don't know at all, it's not normal, the mayor of Duhamel in Outauais, David Farrand. That's when we both decided to take this matter into our own hands.

Starting this Sunday, citizens of the region (Duhamel, Lac-Simon, Cheneville, Saint-Emile-de-Suffolk and Lac-des-Plages) are invited to three information sessions planned for September. A representative from the municipalities, mining company and environmental groups will be on hand to present their vision and answer questions.

The ultimate goal: to conduct a referendum to gauge whether local people approve of Lomico Metals' development ambitions. The work usually comes to mining companies as part of preparatory studies leading to Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) work.

Bypass procedures

“We can wait until Lomiko takes over and he can demonstrate the results of his work during BAPE elsewhere,” Mayor Farrand explained. But at the rate things are going, BAPE won't happen before the fall of 2026.

“However,” he continues, “we will be able to do something after another three years of the company investing in this project. Now is the time for people to want to know and understand. Reassure or not. Three years from now, it may be too late to change anything.”

Last August, citizens protesting Lomico Metals' graphite mine project staged a demonstration in Lac-des-Plages.

Photo by CHRISTIAN HOLDEN

Known as La Loutre, the open-air graphite mine project is located thirty kilometers west of the municipality of Mont-Tremblant in Laurentians – in the Outauais in the Crow Flies.

Civilian opposition rose a notch in early June after a British Columbia company confirmed it had received an $11.4 million grant from the US Department of Defense.

Legault promises

During his last election campaign, Francois Legault promised that no mining project would go ahead without social approval in the regions concerned. His finance minister, Pierre Fitzgibbon, repeated the same message several times.

Quebec Prime Minister François Legault press briefing with Finance Minister Eric Girard and Finance Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon Thursday March 19, 2020 at the Quebec Parliament. Economic measures have been put in place due to the coronavirus pandemic. Simon Clark/Journal de Quebec/Agence QMI

Archive photo, QMI Agency

The problem is that in Quebec there is no clear definition of what constitutes a community's social approval for a project, emphasizes Julie Reid Forget, an expert and consultant on these matters. “We analyze the soil, count the birds and everything. But the social impact of a project, its acceptance or rejection by the community, is neither properly assessed nor well defined.

Faced with such ambiguity, we often rely on the discretion of governments, condemns Louis Saint-Hilaire, President of the Regroupment de Protection des Lacs de la Petit-Nation. “It's completely random. Politicians know this and happily use it (a sense of social acceptability) to convince the population of anything and everything (Hydro-Québec wind turbines, the Northvolt plant on the South Shore, etc.). It's pathetic.”

New World Graphite

In Saint-Michel-des-Saints, the latter recalled that in the case of the Nouveau Monde graphite project, the project leaders – as a demonstration of social acceptability – presented the result of a telephone survey (only on the “hard line”). ) held in mid-November.

“It was rubbish, condemned by BAPE at the time, but the Legault government still allowed it to pass by decree,” lamented Mr St-Hilaire.

Louis Saint-Hilaire, president of the Petit-Nation Lakes Protection Group.

Taken from the Facebook page of the Coalition to Make Quebec Look Better.

He also welcomed the approach followed by the five municipalities of Outauais in this regard. An “extraordinarily bold” approach, in his view, that, with a bit of luck, will allow the region to avoid many of the excesses of the past. Along with the nouveau monde graphite case at Lanaudière, the Canadian malartic mine, Abitibi, immediately springs to mind.

This is also, modestly, the hope of local elected officials, Mr. Farand agreed. He hopes that these efforts will give citizens a better understanding of what Lomico is preparing and that the Quebec government will better appreciate the level of social acceptance or acceptability of the project.

“It will be interesting to see if Mr Legault keeps his word,” adds Mr St-Hilaire. Will this government dare to prevent this mine from seeing the light of day on our territory through American defenses, in case it proves socially unacceptable?

Highlights

Three information sessions:

1. July 21, in Duhamel
2. Aug. 25, in Cheneyville
3. September 15, in Saint-Emile-de-Suffolk