The mayor of Grenville-sur-la-Rouge, the small town that was evacuated several weeks ago because a dam threatened to burst, was in Montreal on Tuesday to raise funds.
His town is facing a hefty lawsuit because it is trying to stop a plan for an open pit mine that was approved by the previous administration.
In 2013 Carbon Canada began surveying the area in Grenville-sur-la-Rouge and applied to create a mine for marble and graphite.
In 2016 and 2017 the town's council approved the plan for the mine and sent resolutions asking the province to allow the non-agricultural use of land.
That's when residents of the town of 2,800 learned of the project, and Mayor Tom Arnold and his council were elected on a platform to stop the mine, saying it does not comply with the 2015 urban plan approved in 2015.
Arnold said he doesn't understand how an open pit mine can operate in an area known for agriculture and cottagers.
"The biggest thing is the noise and the dust and everything else that's going to be produced that mine we have a small community not from there a hamlet of about 100 homes on a lake there's gonna get the residues and there gonna get the environmental impacts," said Arnold.
He was hoping to raise $200,000 to pay for the town's legal fees.
Carbon Canada says on its website that the town is circumventing by-laws passed by its town council a few years ago approving the mine.
It is seeking $96 million in compensation, which the company estimates would be the profit from the mine.
The annual budget for Grenville-sur-la-Rouge is $5.5 million.
