Quebec has agreements to let dozens of companies pollute above legal levels

The Quebec government has signed agreements with 89 companies, granting them exemptions from laws aimed at limiting pollution, Radio-Canada has learned.

Major players — including Rio Tinto, ArcelorMittal, Lafarge, Tata Steel, Kruger and Cascades — are among the companies who signed agreements.

The province's Environment Ministry said most of the companies are involved in the pulp and paper industry, but many mines and aluminum producers are also on the list.

The companies can be found in nearly every region of the province, with many close to major urban centres, including Montreal, Quebec City, Sherbrooke, Trois-Rivières and Gatineau.

Also on the list is the Horne Foundry copper smelter in Rouyn-Noranda, Que., more than 600 kilometres northwest of Montreal. The government has recently come under fire for allowing the company to emit arsenic levels over 33 times the provincial standard.

A grandfather clause

The agreement — known as an industrial depollution attestation — is only available to companies who were operating in Quebec before certain environmental regulations came into effect.

It's effectively a grandfather clause for certain companies to continue to pollute at pre-regulation levels. It can be renewed every five years.

In a statement, Quebec's Environment Ministry argued that the attestations "allow for a progressive tightening of environmental requirements." Premier François Legault has previously said publicly that companies need to be supported through that transition.

According to the list, the first attestation was first issued more than 20 years ago.

The information obtained by Radio-Canada does not say which environmental standards each company is being exempted from. Likewise, it is not known which limits are or are not imposed with every renewal.

"That is really worrying," said Anne-Sophie Doré, a lawyer with the Quebec Environmental Law Centre, a non-profit that works to make sure environmental laws are being respected.

"We're suddenly realizing that we have created a special regime … and that people's right to a healthy environment can be violated without informing the public of the situation," she said.

An attestation has to be granted after a public consultation, but the process has been criticized for its lack of transparency. Doré noted that a public online register of all attestations was promised in 2017 but still doesn't exist.

Alain Saladzius, an engineer and the president of Fondation Rivières, a non-profit that aims to protect Quebec's rivers, agreed that the attestations should be made public.

He also goes a step further, saying that all companies who overstep their attestations should also have their notices of non-compliance made public.

The Horne Foundry in Rouyn-Noranda, for example, has received five notices of non-compliance since first receiving its attestation.