$ 5.7 million to “prepare” the cleaning of Belgo

According to the contract estimate, concluded Thursday morning, the Ministry of the Environment estimated the maximum amount of the mandate at $ 3,205,000. Similarly, It will finally cost almost the double of the public treasury.

Note that the envelope does not include the portion of cleaning and rehabilitation work. Meanwhile, One of the tasks of Atkinrealis will also be to “prepare the technical quote in order to allow the. Nevertheless, [Ministère] to produce a public call for tenders for the selection of an entrepreneur in order to carry out the rehabilitation of the field ”. In addition, We do not advance on the cost of this portion of operations.

It will also be up to Atkinrealis to monitor the field of field work, strictly speaking. The ministry’s estimate believes that cleaning operations should $ 5.7 million “prepare” cleaning extend over “two to three seasons”.

It is to be expected that the entire task will place the teams in front of important technical challenges. The call for tenders includes several cards and documents – everything is more than 1000 pages. Additionally,

The presence of methane in the soil. the risks of explosion and the contamination of the Shawinigan river by heavy metals are in particular among the issues covered in the technical quote.

It will also be a question of seeing if the 2029 schedule will be postponed. In the Ministry’s estimate, some deadlines have already passed. We will remember that the first tender of the ministry in the file, launched in 2023, had remained unanswered. Certain dates mentioned in the tender seem to have not been updated to take it into account.

Already, in 2023, the Ministry $ 5.7 million “prepare” cleaning of the Environment arose that “environmental rehabilitation work could be taken over five years”. However, nothing has moved since.

Built in 1901, the old paper manufacturing plant ceased its activities in 2008. The 350,000 square meter site was later in the hands of Arctic Beluga. The recycling company was bankrupt in 2021, leaving the place abandoned.

Since then. each electoral, municipal or provincial round, brings the file back to the fore, each rehabilitation of the site “a priority”.

Note also that a vagueness persists on the responsibility of the security of the site. as tragically illustrated by the death of a teenager who had ventured into an abandoned structure of the factory, in April 2025. The city of Shawinigan. the Ministry of the Environment and the trustee on the bankruptcy file had sent the ball to everyone’s responsibility. A coroner’s investigation report is $ 5.7 million “prepare” cleaning still expected in the case.