Quebec opposition attacks the CAQ on copper smelting plant's future

Opposition parties in Quebec City are urging the government to react to reports that Glencore is considering closing the Horne smelter if investments to meet air quality targets are too high.

Horne smelter issue in Rouyn-Noranda is once again taking a political turn after Radio-Canada revealed that Glencore's board of directors was due to meet shortly to decide on the smelter's future, despite the fact that the estimated cost of reducing arsenic emissions has risen by 50 per cent.

"I hope that the CAQ will not give in to these threats and bend over backwards even more," said Quebec solidaire co-spokesperson Émilise Lessard-Therrien.

In her view, the future of the Horne smelter in Rouyn-Noranda is "much more a question of will than of power."

The QS co-spokesperson stressed that "no one wants the company to close" and that "what we want is for it to respect the same standards as elsewhere in the world."

It also noted in a news release that "the federal and Quebec governments have earmarked millions of dollars to support Glencore in modernising the smelter" and that "the multinational has the leeway" to do so.

For his part, Liberal MNA Frédéric Beauchemin said on social media that the "incompetence" of the Coalition Avenir Quebec "is also affecting the development of the whole of Quebec."

"What will the CAQ do to supply the rare minerals that only the Horne smelter supplies to Quebec? What is the contingency plan?" asked the Liberal MNA.

Thierry Larivière, communications advisor to the Confédération des syndicats nationaux (CSN), which represents the smelter's workers, said on Tuesday morning that he was waiting for more information on the situation before reacting.

An investment initially estimated at $500 million

An agreement with the government, which was signed with the Liberal government in 2017, allowed arsenic emissions from the smelter to reach an annual average of 100 ng/m3, 33 times higher than the standard.

In July 2022, a report by the Quebec Institute of Public Health (INSPQ) revealed that, over a 70-year period, between one and 14 Rouyn-Noranda residents would develop cancer if Glencore did not reduce the concentration of arsenic in the air produced by the smelter.

In August 2022, Glencore announced that it was investing $500 million to achieve an arsenic emission threshold of 15 nanograms per cubic metre of air (ng/m3) by 2027, as requested by Quebec public health authorities and the Ministry of the Environment.

In March 2023, the government required the Horne Foundry to put in place a plan that would enable it to meet the target of 15 nanograms per cubic metre (ng/m3) of arsenic from 2027, which, if the foundry meets the target, would be five times higher than the environmental standard of 3 ng/m3.

Last spring, the government also required the company to submit an action plan by 2027, to eventually meet the 3 ng/m3 standard.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Feb. 14, 2024.