Cement Americas

FAL 2014

Cement Americas provides comprehensive coverage of the North and South American cement markets from raw material extraction to delivery and tranportation to end user.

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www.cementamericas.com • Fall 2014 • CEMENT AMERICAS 13 Furthermore, Lafarge joined two non-profit groups in mounting a legal challenge against a Quebec cabinet min- ister's authorization of the McInnis Cement plant. The company, together with the Centre Québécois du droit de l'Environnement and Environnement Vert-Plus Inc., filed a motion for judicial review asking the Quebec Superior Court to overturn a decision by David Heurtel, Quebec's environment minister, authorizing construction of the McInnis plant. The plaintiffs argue Heurtel "exceeded his jurisdiction" by giving the controversial project a green light in June without it being subjected to an environmental impact assessment and review. They are seeking a full environmental review to take place by the province's Bureau d'Audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE). Heurtel states the cement project is not subject to a BAPE re- view because it was launched in 1995, before the law was changed to require automatic review for large-scale industrial projects. He pledged the project will be tracked rigorously. "There is an approval process outlined in provincial legis- lation that all companies must follow," Lafarge spokesman Regan Watts said in an emailed statement. "It appears as though in serving the interest of accelerating this proj- ect, the approval for these permits may have been issued in violation of the government's own laws and potentially put the health of the environment at risk." The plaintiffs state the cement plant will generate an es- timated 10 percent of all of Quebec's industrial green- house gas emissions when it's up and running, making an environmental review essential. According to its legal motion, even if the promoters had filed all the required information and documents in sup- port of their project before the law was changed, which they maintain wasn't done, "the simple fact remains that the current project would have to be subjected to the en- vironmental impact assessment and review procedure." The plaintiffs state McInnis is now pitching plans for up to 2.2 million metric tons of cement at the plant, double the original capacity. "It's important that we shed light on the approval process of this project," said Michel Bélanger, a Montreal lawyer representing the non-profits in the case. The environment ministry "exceeded its jurisdiction" in concluding the 1995 project and the one authorized in 2014 are one and the same, he said. These are just the latest developments in a lingering bat- tle between proponents of the cement facility, who argue that it will bring much-needed jobs and investment to a distressed area, and critics who say the government shouldn't be supporting one project in an industry already in oversupply. F

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