Northvolt halts work on massive battery plant in Quebec while injunction application is heard

The site of the future Northvolt site that will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles.

Northvolt temporarily halted work on its Montérégie battery plant south of Montreal on Thursday while the Superior Court ruled on a request for an injunction.

Emmanuelle Rouillard-Moreau, a spokeswoman for the Swedish multinational, confirmed in an email that work had been suspended on Thursday afternoon "out of respect for the legal process under way."

The case will be heard at the Montreal courthouse on Friday morning, and Rouillard-Moreau said that Northvolt representatives would be on hand to present their position on the matter.

On Thursday, the Centre québécois du droit de l'environnement (CQDE) and three citizens applied to the Superior Court for an injunction demanding the immediate suspension of work on the battery factory project.

Tree-cutting work began earlier this week on the site of the future plant in McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand after the Ministry of the Environment authorized the start of construction last week.

In a news release issued on Thursday, the CQDE called for "the suspension of this disturbing work" on biodiversity.

The CQDE's legal experts point out that a few months ago, "the destruction of wetlands in the same location was refused" as part of another project, and that "the ministry's experts" referred at the time to "the importance of these environments for the region and for biodiversity."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Jan. 19, 2024.