Quebec judge rejects injunction to stop work on Northvolt EV battery plant

A Quebec Superior Court judge has rejected an environmental group's request for an injunction to stop work at the site of the future Northvolt plant, a massive, multi-billion-dollar EV battery installation east of Montreal.

Work had recently begun but was halted whentheCentre qubcois du droit de l'environnement(CQDE), filed the injunction requestin mid-January, calling for the work to stop. Three citizens were also part of the courtchallenge.

They argued the permits and authorizations to proceed with the plant were unreasonableand failed to fully protect wetlands and species at risk.

Northvolt told the court stopping the work even temporarily would be fatal for the company and put the whole project at risk.

In his decision published Friday afternoon, Justice David Collier said the CQDE had failed to "put forward serious arguments allowing us to doubt, at first glance, the validity of the ministerial authorization and the municipal permit" that provided legal backing to Northvolt's activities on the plot of land.

The judge acknowledged the destructive nature of the plant's construction on wetlandsbut said the company had taken steps to make up for it, such as a $4.7-million investment in restoring other wetlands, as well as acommitment toplanting24,000 trees for the 8,730 living trees it would be cutting at the site and theremoval of 5,365 dead ones.

Northvolt, a Swedish company and agiant in the field of electric vehicle batteries, suspendedwork on the construction site after the injunction request was filed"out of respect for the ongoing legal process."

The plant would be locatedon the border of Saint-Basile-le-Grand and McMasterville, about 30 kilometres east of Montreal.

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Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry Franois-Philippe Champagne says he wants Northvolt to continue to work with stakeholders after a Quebec Superior Court judge rejected an environmental group's request for an injunction to stop work at the site of the companys future EV battery plant east of Montreal.

Shortly after Collier's decision was published, Northvolt said it would resume work at the site Friday afternoon.

The company said that in order to obtain permits from the Environment Ministry and theCity of St-Basile-le-Grand, it"had to rigorously and seriously demonstratethat our project complied with environmental regulations."

"Serious studies and analyses were carried out and many strict conditions were met to obtain these permits," Northvolt said in a statement.

As part of the construction work, Northvolt began fellingtrees at the site in early January, after receiving approvalfrom Quebec's Environment Ministry.

The CQDEalso reacted to the decision Friday afternoon, saying it remains concerned about how destructive the Northvolt project will be.

Marc Bishai, a laywer withthe group, said in an interview that he and his colleagues are looking into what other legal recourse they may have to pause the project.

"The more decisions are made democratically and with a lot of transparency, the less these types of debates need to be settled by the courts," Bishai said.

Lawyers for the CQDE argued that the Environment Ministry had recently gotten in the way of another project in that area due to the potential damage it would cause to wetlands. They said the ministry seemed to be applyinga different standard for Northvolt.

Last September, both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Quebec Premier Franois Legaultparticipated in a news conference announcing theproject.

Trudeau called the project "historic and transformative."