Blainville mayor demands meeting with Legault about hazardous waste dump expansion
Company dismisses allegations of contamination
The mayor of a suburb north of Montreal has called for a meeting with Premier François Legault within 48 hours to stop the expansion of a hazardous waste dump on land owned by the city.
In a scathing open letter sent to Legault on Monday, Blainville Mayor Liza Poulin wrote that the government is setting a "dangerous precedent" and that "it is time for you to listen to reason."
The Quebec government tabled a bill last week to force the City of Blainville to cede land located in its large peat bog, an ecosystem of high ecological value, to Stablex, an American company which handles hazardous waste. The legislation would allow the company to expand its hazardous waste disposal site.
The company has been treating and burying hazardous materials such as batteries and laboratory waste in Blainville for the past 40 years.
In her letter, Poulin called the bill a "frontal attack" on municipal autonomy and criticized it for allowing a U.S. company to get its hands on public land for the benefit of private and foreign interests.
"Other companies, American or domestic, will demand the same preferential treatment from the government," Poulin wrote.
In defence of the expansion, Stablex argues that its current facilities will reach full capacity by 2027.
Its Blainville site is the only place in the province where hazardous industrial waste from Quebec, Ontario and the United States is treated and buried.
When the bill was tabled last Thursday, Natural Resources Minister Maïté Blanchette-Vézina said the government had to act quickly to avoid service disruptions.
But Stablex already has the land needed to continue burying hazardous waste, Poulin said in an interview with Radio-Canada's ICI RDI on Monday.
"I don't see why the company couldn't continue on that land rather than expanding its activities … without necessarily understanding the environmental impact," Poulin said.
In a September 2023 report, Quebec's environmental watchdog, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE), described the expansion project as "premature" and recommended that the government not authorize it.
Following public outcry, the mayor and all Blainville elected officials who previously supported the project tore up the agreement with the company.
'There is no alternative,' Stablex says
For Stablex CEO Michel Perron, it's a good thing that Poulin is requesting a meeting with the government to set the record straight about the project.
"I think having meetings is the right way to move forward," Perron said on ICI RDI.
"Unfortunately, Stablex is perceived by people as a bad company because we are part of an American consortium," he said, adding that "the very foundation of Stablex is environmental protection."
Stablex, now owned by Republic Services, has been owned by a U.S. company since 2010.
In a news release published Monday morning, Stablex defended the safety of its processes and the choice of land to expand its landfill site.
"The new land, first identified in collaboration with the City of Blainville and now chosen by the Quebec government, is not a random choice," the company statement reads. "Stablex wanted to avoid establishing itself on the land chosen in 1996, since it had been identified before the construction of a new residential development."
"Opponents of the current project are missing a fundamental element: there is no alternative."
Perron said that while it is normal for residents not to want a dump site "in their backyard," the company isn't contaminating the environment.
"All this misinformation makes people right to hate us and believe that we are bad guys, which is not at all the case," Perron said.
Reporting by Radio-Canada's Charles Séguin and Stéphane Bordeleau, translated by Holly Cabrera