In recent news from Quebec, it has been revealed that a judge from the Quebec Superior Court has refused to issue an injunction to halt tree cutting and other preparatory work on the site of a future electric vehicle factory east of Montreal.
Judge David Collier’s decision was based on insufficient evidence presented by an environmental group and citizens who sought the injunction. The court determined that the province’s Department of Environment and the residents did not act unreasonably in granting permission to Northvolt, the company behind the factory.
The Quebec Center for Environmental Law (Centre québécois du droit de l’environnement) had filed a motion to suspend work on the 170-hectare site, arguing that the province allowed the project to proceed without conducting a proper analysis of its impact on biodiversity.
In his ruling, Collier stated that governments have broad powers to make decisions, and the court can only invalidate them in very limited circumstances. He also noted that the plaintiffs failed to prove that the province was abdicating responsibility or giving Northvolt a “blank check” to construct the factory without a plan to mitigate environmental consequences.
This clearly means that construction work on the electric vehicle factory can continue. However, it is necessary to conduct proper analysis and take actions to minimize the factory’s impact on the natural environment.
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The source of the article is from the blog tvbzorg.com