Tension is high in Rouyn-Noranda, in the wake of the government’s announcement that will force 200 households to leave their homes due to toxic emissions from the Horne Foundry.
• Read also: Horne Foundry: 200 families will be relocated to create a buffer zone
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“We were always told that was not in the plans. And there, bang, we learn from the media that we are going to be relocated, ”laments Émilie Leclerc, a resident of the Notre-Dame sector for 18 years.
On Thursday, the Quebec government officially unveiled its plan to relocate residents of 82 buildings and the announcement went like a bomb in the neighborhood most affected by arsenic fumes.
“We will not force anyone’s hand”, launched, in the room, the minister responsible for the region Mathieu Lacombe, without further details.
Questions
Residents will therefore have to leave, but a vagueness reigns over the time they will have to do so.
In a press briefing, Andrée Laforest, the Minister of Municipal Affairs mentions that this process will begin slowly and that it “will be spread over two, three possibly five years”.
The government will invest $58 million to relocate households and build a new neighborhood. The housing vacancy rate is 0.8% in Rouyn-Noranda.
“For the moment it is nothingness […] my youngest is quite anxious. It is his milieu, his environment. He goes to school here,” explains Mr.me Leclerc, who fears not being able to buy such a comfortable duplex.
Another resident is happy to be outside the target area, but she is apprehensive regarding the work that is still to come for a few years.
“Noranda, it’s part of me, for sure I don’t want to leave him. Even though we know that [l’usine] damage, it’s a choice that I still make to stay in the area, ”says Kathleen Savard, a resident of Carter Street, located 300 meters from the Horne Foundry.
Angry
Photo QMI Agency, Emilie Parent-Bouchard
About fifty demonstrators were waiting for the CAQ ministers in front of the Rouyn-Noranda Convention Center on Thursday.
In the followingmath of the events, regarding fifty demonstrators showed their anger by brandishing posters reading “Our lives are worth more than their profits” as well as “Your cancer, courtesy of the Horne Foundry”.
It is the multinational Glencore which will have to buy and shave the buildings located in the Notre-Dame district. The company will also have to green this buffer zone, at its expense. Glencore argued that the government clearance was a five-year “squeeze” of the eight-year plan they had submitted to reduce their arsenic emissions. “We really can’t go any faster,” said Marie-Élise Viger, company representative.
Quebec is also tightening the obligations of the Horne Foundry, which must reach, within five years, an annual average of 15 nanograms of arsenic per cubic meter of air, which nevertheless remains five times higher than the Quebec standard. A reduction to this threshold reduces the risk of lung cancer by regarding 45%, according to the National Institute of Public Health of Quebec.
The foundry will also have to reduce lead and cadmium emissions and Quebec is also tightening its requirements for the treatment of its wastewater.
THE GOVERNMENT PLAN
- In addition to reducing its arsenic emissions, the smelter will also have to reduce lead and cadmium emissions.
- To ensure that Glencore meets the requirements of the new authorization, the government will set up an independent monitoring committee.
- Quebec will pay $16.1 million to the city of Rouyn-Noranda to decontaminate land and make the city more attractive to investors.
- The government is investing $10 million to create an independent observatory on the impacts of contaminant emissions on health and the environment, and $2.6 million to monitor air quality around the smelter.
His retirement ruined by arsenic
Marie-Ève Duclos might not have made a worse choice to invest for her retirement.
Six years ago, she and her husband bought a four-unit building right in the buffer zone, on 6th Street between the Carter and the Horne foundry.
“It’s my retirement income that will go up in smoke,” says the community worker, who cannot count on a huge pension fund to ensure her old age.
This is not the first tile that falls on his head. In 2020, the building was declared a total loss following a fire. It had to be completely rebuilt.
She has no idea what kind of compensation she will get from the Glencore company and fears that she will not be able to maintain her investment in the long term.
“I have a brand new block, which is two years old. It was expensive to rebuild with insurance. Clearly, with the municipal assessment, I will not be able to maintain my long-term investment,” she says.
And, above all, she is worried regarding her four tenants who may have difficulty finding another roof in the midst of a housing crisis.
“They don’t have a car and walk around. We allowed them to have animals. They experience a lot of anxiety,” she says.
-Anouk Lebel
