Less BAPE, fewer studies on damage to dams

Quebec is about to lighten its environmental regulations for the energy and aluminum sectors. This decision worried by environmental groups and the Union of Agricultural Producers (UPA), which fear a scenario similar to that which led to the concessions granted to companies in the battery sector.

The proposed changes relate to the evaluations carried out by the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE), the safety of the dams and the sanitation of the atmosphere.

They predict in particular that the electrical transformation stations would no longer be subject to the BAPEjust like certain transport lines and certain infrastructure projects in water environments.

The minimum frequency of safety assessments for some 2000 dams highly from Quebec and that of corollary studies would also be rejected from 10 to 15 years.

A modification aimed at repelling the tightening of the emission standards of particles and fluorides of certain aluminum production processes would also be granted to companies in this sector in order to give them more time to adapt their manufacturing processes.

Three settlement projects for this purpose were published last week in The Official Gazette of Quebec.

These texts stem from an effort aimed at to optimise The supervision applicable to the energy and aluminum sectors, explains the Ministry of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks (MELCCFP) on its website.

This regulatory change project omnibus is currently the subject of a public consultation which will end next month. Its content is not final, but the changes proposed could materialize by the 2026 elections, or even by the end of 2025.

This initiative aims to Reduce business burden In a changing and uncertain economic context and at accelerate the projects required to operate Quebec Energy Transitioncan we read in the public part of the memory presented for this purpose on June 16 to the Council of Ministers.

Quebec believes that its regulatory change project would bring Annual net savings of approximately $ 4.4 million for Quebec companies, in addition to occasional savings of around $ 2 million.

A trenddeplores Nature Quebec

This project omnibus would allow to lighten the regulatory corpus of MELCCFP all in now the highest requirements in terms of environmental protectionwe are worth in the memory presented to the Council of Ministers. However, this prospect is not that of environmentalists and agricultural producers.

It is a trend that has been observed for some years. We want to speed up projects, and then for that, we turn the round cornersobserves Alice-Anne Simard, Director General of Nature Québec, in particular alluding to adoption by Ottawa, last month, of law C-5 on projects of national interest.

She compares the most recent project of regulatory changes in MELCCFP To the one who was developed for the battery sector and who preceded the announcement of the arrival in Quebec of Northvolt, whose project, which was to be born in Montérégie, never materialized.

Among all the changes proposed, it is the one that aims to subtract certain projects with regard to the BAPE who concerns her most.

What the case of Northvolt should teach us is that we have to make sure that we have the population behind us, insists Mrs. Simard. We must have social acceptability, otherwise the energy transition will be very painful for the government and for the population.

It is not by coming around the rules, coming to offer gifts to companies that we gain public confidence.

The context invoked by the government, moreover, is a chimeraaccording to Ms. Simard, who claims to have been consulted upstream of these settlement projects in March 2024, long before Donald Trump won the elections and the economy begins to vacillate because of his threats of prices.

It’s completely dishonestshe launches.

Not BAPE For Berri-2, Redoute Équiterre

Director of government relations at Equiterre, Marc-André Viau is also concerned about seeing that Quebec plans to remove weight from the rules of environmental evaluations, a bit as he had done to accelerate some 200 infrastructure projects to the height of the Pandemic of Cavid-19.

According to him, the government is preparing to sacrifice Basic principles to achieve Savings of candle bits.

Projects that will be affected by regulatory changes are not known, But we know that Hydro-Québec has the will to double the energy capacity of the network in the coming yearshe recalls, evoking action plan 2035 presented by the ex-CEO Michael Sabia in Novembre 2023.

The proposed changes could therefore apply to a large number of energy projects which are in the boxes of the Crown Companyas well as those private companies that would like to develop capacitiesadds Mr. Viau, with reference to the provisions of Bill 69, adopted under gag last June.

Equiterre is concerned, for example, that in Montreal, the BAPE Not being required to look at the future Berri-2 transformation post, which Hydro-Québec said he wanted to build on the edge of the large library, in February, before announcing, the following month, that “new hypotheses” were under study.

A preconsultation deemed inadequate

L’UPA – which, like Nature Québec and Equiterre, appears in the memory given to the Council of Ministers among the organizations consulted upstream – deplores the way in which the MELCCFP caught up there to develop his regulation projects.

The ministry, in March 2024, had only given the parties to comment on nearly 250 changes relating to 16 different regulations.

We are worried about how it is currently being done, in the middle of the summersays the director general of the agricultural union, Charles-Félix Ross. We try to go fast, but with probably important consequences on the territoryhe said.

If these regulations exist, it is not to put sticks in the wheels of promoters, it is to protect the resources we have in Quebecpleads Mr. Ross.

L’UPAhe continues, is mainly concerned about the fact that the Hydro 2035 action plan provides for the addition of 5,000 kilometers of electric lines, which will cross agricultural lands, erablières, woods, forests and which, in some cases, would no longer be subject to BAPE.

The government and Hydro-Québec on the same wavelength

The Minister of the Environment, the Fight against Climate Change, Wildlife and Parks, Benoit Charette, was not available to give us an interview on the subject this week.

However, his cabinet said, concerning the frequency of damage to dams, that This change is not [s’appliquerait] not to inspections and other compliance and maintenance measuresand that it would only target works Having already been the subject of a security evaluation study.

With regard to electrical posts which would no longer be subject to BAPEhe also wanted to recall that these were supervised by the law on the quality of the environment- One of the most rigorous regulatory executives in the world – and that a ministerial authorization would remain necessary for these projects.

The MELCCFP However, struggles to follow up on his own regulations, as has already pointed out the Sustainable Development Commissioner. Ministerial authorizations have allowed, for example, the destruction of wet and water environments without Quebec ensuring compensating them.

Hydro-Québec, for its part, confirms that the authorization times for the many transformation projects required within the framework of its 2035 action plan could, thanks to the proposed regulatory modifications, be reduced by several months.

Joined by Radio-Canada, the Crown corporation has nevertheless been reassuring about the procedural reduction suggested by the government. If the BAPE no longer looks at his post plans, they will remain strictly framed by the applicable laws and regulationsshe argued.

Furthermore, Data from the past 20 years show that, with some exceptions, they are generally subject to a limited number of environmental issues or social issuesunderlined a spokesperson by email.

In general, Social acceptability is at the heart of all Hydro-Québec projects and remains a fundamental condition for the realization of each of the company’s projectshe added. On this subject, the projects will always be the subject of developed consultations.