Madam Speaker, it is an honour to rise today in Adjournment Proceedings to pursue a question I originally asked the Minister of Environment on September 16 of this year. It relates to a very controversial project in the province of Quebec.

My question is about Northvolt. No advance assessment was done on this project. Now, the mayors of Saint‑Basile‑le‑Grand and McMasterville have requested an environmental assessment.

Quebec's environmental review from the BAPE does not apply because these are areas of federal jurisdiction. More than 4,000 people at the time of this question had asked through a petition for a federal environmental review.

In response to my question about whether there would be an environmental review of Northvolt, the Minister of Environment said that the Impact Assessment Agency was reviewing the request for an assessment of the project and that the review was ongoing. The minister also told me the agency would make a recommendation to the ministry in the weeks to come. That was on September 16, so quite a few weeks have come and gone since I asked the question.

It is generally seen as an environmental, green project to ensure that Canada has more components of the renewable energy supply chain for the lithium ion battery storage of renewable energy. The difficulty here in particular is that the Northvolt site is on contaminated land, previously contaminated by the Canadian Industries Limited explosives plant. There is tremendous concern about the proximity of the Northvolt plant. It is so close to the Richelieu River that an advanced environmental assessment is needed to ensure that we know the project has adequate safety measures in place to avoid the contamination of the Richelieu River by the Northvolt plant.

Since that time, there have been a number of developments surrounding Northvolt. Its financial security is in doubt after the company had a downturn in its economic fortunes. In fact, the company might welcome an environmental review to keep its Canadian prospects alive while it tries to revive its financial prospects. The most recent note on the Impact Assessment Agency website is from nine days after I asked the question. On September 25, it reported that parts of the project, particularly the battery cell components of the project, could not be evaluated because construction had substantially begun and it could therefore not do a review.

However, as far as I can see from tracking this issue closely, it is still the case that we do not know if the project as a whole will have a full environmental review under the federal environmental assessment law. It is really critical for the protection of key habitat and species in that area that the environmental review take place soon and that the proponent is informed early of what precautionary steps it will have to take to ensure that the environment surrounding the Northvolt plant in Saint-Basile-le-Grand, McMasterville and the Richelieu River is protected.

This was a great opportunity to pursue this matter tonight, as the question is an open question: Will the government have an impact review of Northvolt?

Elizabeth May

$565,861.00