Photo credit: Jacques Boissinot Archives The Canadian Press
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Montreal, July 11, 2024 - On July 3, 2024, the federal government gave the go-ahead for the expansion of the Bloom Lake iron mine's tailings and waste rock piles, adding the lakes and rivers surrounding the project to its list of exceptions to the ban on destroying fish habitats. So there are 37 bodies of water surrounding the mine site, representing 156 hectares of fish habitat and many more natural environments of all kinds, which will be destroyed in perpetuity. The federal government is thus following in the footsteps of the provincial government, against the advice of BAPE, scientists and public opinion, and setting a dangerous precedent.
Against popular and scientific odds
As a reminder, the project to increase tailings and waste rock storage capacity at the Bloom Lake iron mine, initiated by the mine's current owner Minerai de fer Québec (MFQ), was submitted to a BAPE for analysis in 2021. The project proposed sacrificing 156 hectares of lakes to dump mining waste. Several groups opposite firmly to this proposal for QMFs, a practice that has been gradually abandoned or outright banned around the world, given its devastating nature, and
given that a less damaging alternative exists: backfilling mining pits with the waste they generate.
The BAPE report was explicit The commission of inquiry is of the opinion that the proponent has not demonstrated that the solutions chosen for managing mine waste are those that minimize impacts on wetlands and water environments [...]. Consequently, the commission recommends that the project not be authorized as presented. »
In addition, a Light survey conducted in July 2022 clearly demonstrated that there was no social acceptability for destroying lakes and natural environments to store mining waste. Nearly nine out of 10 people in Quebec (89%) were in favor of "prohibiting the dumping of mining waste in any lake, river or sensitive ecological environment".
"Unfortunately for ecosystems and for the populations that depend on them and demand their protection, it is in the name of preserving a presumed "mineral potential" - and therefore of highly speculative economic interests at this stage - that alternatives like the
the destruction of lakes and watercourses in this part of the territory has been authorized," laments Émile Cloutier-Brassard, Eau Secours' mining officer.
In the spring of 2023, the environmental organizations Eau Secours and Fondation Rivières also produced the clear demonstration that this project was developed through a series of decrees, allowing piecemeal expansions and systematically relying on promises that these site expansions would not provoke others. This demonstration was submitted to the federal authorities, who were well aware of the history of false commitments involved in this umpteenth request for expansion, this time involving the sacrifice of
dozens of lakes.
Finally, federal legislation is clear, stating that no deleterious substance may be discharged into water frequented by fish unless authorized by regulation (under section 36(3) of the Fisheries Act). Canada Fisheries Act. By approving the destruction of such large lakes simply to store mining waste, the federal government is once again repeating and accentuating the scope of a dangerous precedent that facilitates the circumvention of its own legislation. This maintains a race to the bottom, since it sends a message to mining companies that destroying fish habitat to dump mining waste would become an option more readily tolerated by government authorities.
"Green steel" will never be blue
On April 19, Quebec's Minister of the Economy, Innovation and Energy met with Les Affaires newspaper and reaffirmed his desire to promote "green steel". that iron ore mined at the Bloom Lake iron mine in particular is used to produce. The signatory groups denounce the fact that the Minister and the government claim to produce "green" and responsible steel, while 37 bodies of water representing over 157 hectares of fish habitat will be destroyed.
"As we can see today, the price of producing this "green" steel is the sacrifice of dozens of lakes and hundreds of hectares of wetlands and waterways. Ecosystems destroyed and the environment made unliveable for a marginal reduction in greenhouse gas emissions.
This is a clear illustration of the limits of this technology-only approach to mitigating the effects of the climate and biodiversity crises. We need to drastically reduce our dependence on the extraction of virgin minerals, and quickly, because with so many lakes and rivers on its blacklist, 'green' steel will never be blue," concludes Mr. Cloutier-Brassard.
Quotes
"Allowing a lake to be destroyed by burying toxic mining waste remains a crime against the environment. No measure can compensate for this crime." – Daniel Green, Society to defeat pollution
"Authorizing the destruction of lakes, rivers and streams based solely on industry demand is a national disgrace. In the face of the multiplication of these mining practices across Quebec and the country, governments must urgently respond with a
a strict prohibition that must not be subject to any exceptions. - Me Rodrigue Turgeon, MiningWatch Canada and Coalition Québec meilleure mine
"This decision goes totally against the collective intelligence that has been expressed time and time again by citizens, scientists, activists and aboriginals, and serves only industry while destroying nature. – Chantal Levert, RQGE
"As we detailed in our brief during the BAPE hearings on this project (in 2020): "the destruction of wetlands and water environments, the risks of aquatic and atmospheric contamination, and the impacts on the health and well-being of the local population engendered by this project must be emphasized, and cannot be overshadowed by short- and medium-term economic arguments." We are dismayed that the federal government is siding with the Quebec government on this issue, condemning nature for the sake of a mining company and government visions that instrumentalize natural environments in the process. turning them into tailings dumps. Creating and maintaining jobs and the economy are important, but they must not be at the expense of environmental and social health. and social and environmental equity. - Patricia Clermont, Ph.D. organizer Association québécoise des médecins pour l'environnement (AQME, member of theCanadian Association of Physicians for the Environment (ACME-CAPE))
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Signatories (alphabetical order) :
- André Bélanger, Fondation Rivières
- Raymond Carrier, Coalition québécoise les lacs incompatibles avec l'activité minière (Coalition
QLAIM) - Patricia Clermont, Ph.D. Organizer, Association québécoise des médecins pour l'environnement
(AQME) - Émile Cloutier-Brassard, Eau Secours
- Danielle Descent, Mani-utenam
- Laura Fontaine, Innu from Mani-utenam
- Daniel Green, Society for Overcoming Pollution (SVP)
- Chantal Levert, Réseau québécois des groupes écologistes (RQGE)
- Isabel Orellana, Centre for Research in Environmental Education and Training
eco-citizenship, Université du Québec à Montréal - Me Rodrigue Turgeon, MiningWatch Canada and Coalition Québec meilleure mine
- Myriam Thériault, Mothers at the front
Appendix
Maps of water bodies to be sacrificed:
Google Maps satellite image of the site to show its extent. In the center are the mining pits, while to the southwest of the site, the orange spot is the tailings pond of the Mount Wright mine operated by ArcelorMittal, a sad foretaste of the fate reserved for the 37 bodies of water surrounding the Bloom Lake mine site.
Image of Lake F, on the Labrador borderThe 88-hectare Lac aux Castors (29 times the size of the Lac aux Castors in Montreal's Parc du Mont Royal) will be filled with mine waste from the Lac Bloom mine in Montréal.
Minerai de fer Québec. The use of lakes as mining dumps must stop in Quebec. Source: Société pour vaincre la Pollution.
Media contacts :
Mathieu Langlois
Eau Secours Communications Manager
514-588-5608
Me Rodrigue Turgeon
MiningWatch Canada and Coalition Québec meilleure mine
819-444-9226
