The Trudeau government has approved the destruction of 37 waterways, including lakes, allowing Ore de fer Québec to dump hundreds of millions of tons of mine waste there in the coming years. Duty. Environmental groups have condemned the decision to allow production expansion at the Plum Lake iron ore mine near Fermont.
Heavily criticized by the Office of Public Inquiry into the Environment, but approved by the Legault government in 2022, the watershed plan also had to get the green light from Ottawa, which has the power to deny the replenishment of these natural environments.
However, the federal government, “on the recommendation of the Environment Minister,” Steven Guilfeld, approved it. Email for answers to questions DutyThe latter’s office has defended Ottawa’s decision, while repeating from the outset that “protecting our ecosystems is important.”
Under the agreement, the federal government agreed to redefine waterways that are currently home to various fish species as “tailings disposal areas for the proposed expansion of the Bloom Lake mine,” Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) notes. . There are mainly lakes and swamps.
Details of the decision, which has been pending for more than two years, were published in the Canada Gazette on July 3. It’s worth recalling that the Fisheries Act prohibits such activities that destroy fish habitat until Ottawa approves all under regulations dealing with effluents from metal mines and diamond mines. The purpose of this regulation is “to protect the water quality of natural water bodies”.
“compensation”
However, to exploit its deposits at a rate of 15 million tonnes per year by 2040, equivalent to doubling production, Ore Quebec estimates its “storage needs” of tailings and waste rock at 1.3 billion tonnes. Of this figure, 872 million tonnes are to be stored in new sites located near the mine pit.
However, according to what we can read in the mining impact study, the company considers the “available land space” to be insufficient. The subsidiary of Australian miner Champion Iron rejected the idea of storing the tailings in the pit “so as not to jeopardize future exploitation of the exploitable resource”.
It is in this context that the mining company is seeking authorization from 2020 to recharge various aquifers in the sector and store tailings and waste rock. So the ECCC and Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) undertook “consultations” based on a plan of “compensatory measures” proposed by Iron Ore Quebec to compensate for the destruction of waterways.
According to the ECCC email, “the decommissioning plan offers seven projects spread across nine sites in multiple locations in Quebec” that would typically be completed by 2035. It includes projects on the salmon rivers of the North Coast. According to the federal government, these programs will “support the conservation and protection of fish and their habitats.” Minister Guilbeault’s office says the same in its email Duty.
DFO also “expects that these projects will provide environmental benefits proportionate to the adverse effects resulting from the loss of fish habitat resulting from the use of water bodies for depositing mine tailings.” The total cost of the compensation plans is estimated at $16 million.
Many environmental groups have criticized the plan to clear waterways to meet the needs of the mining industry. Coalition Québec Meilleur Mine, Eau Secours, Fondation Rivières and MiningWatch Canada have asked the federal government to close the door on using aquifers to store mine tailings.
“It’s a dangerous precedent,” Andre Bélanger, director general of the Rivières Foundation, declared in an interview. According to him, this approval of the destruction of waterways by a mining company risks encouraging other companies to propose the same type of project in Quebec in the coming years.
It’s the same story with Quebec Better Look Coalition co-spokesperson Roderick Turgeon. “We may be proud of the cleanliness of our lakes, but the signal we are sending with such a decision is that we are ready to sacrifice them for mining. This is a perverse decision. »
The Quebec government does not prohibit the destruction of lakes, rivers and marshes to store mining waste. In 2018, he authorized mining giant ArcelorMittal to increase the area of its tailings park located in the Fermont region. 11 lakes, 15 ponds and 25 streams will be dredged through this project. So the mining company planned a “restoration” program to compensate for the loss of natural environments.
Caribou in the region
Woodland caribou may also frequent the Bloom Lake Iron Mine area. But the mining company believes its project “will not have a significant effect” on caribou habitat because “the current rate of disturbance of woodland caribou habitat linked to anthropogenic sources is too high and the latter already eludes the project sector”. Even after potential restoration of the site, “this area does not provide the biological characteristics to meet the habitat needs of woodland caribou, and has for decades.”
