Environment ministry responds to lawsuit 

The Mohawk Council of Kahnawake (MCK) wasn’t consulted about the Northvolt electric car battery plant because it couldn’t demonstrate the project would harm the community’s ability to practice “ancestral activities” on the land located in the Monteregie. 

That’s according to a sworn statement sent to Quebec Superior Court in late November by a regional director employed by Quebec’s environmental ministry (MELCCFP).  

“To the knowledge of the MELCCFP, no ancestral Aboriginal activities linked to hunting, trapping, gathering, harvesting medicinal plants, or ceremonial practices have been practiced on the Northvolt project site, at least since the industrial use of the site, which began in 1878,” Stéphanos Bitzakidis wrote. “The mere fact that a project will impact the environment does not trigger the obligation to consult.”  

Bitzakidi’s sworn statement is one among five sent by lawyers for Quebec to the court on November 18 in response to the MCK launching a lawsuit earlier this year over the provincial and federal governments’ failure to consult it on the project.

Bitzakidis serves as the director of an office under the environmental ministry responsible for providing expertise and analysis whenever the ministry is tasked with approving authorization requests in the Monteregie. He was also the one that decided to approve Northvolt’s request to destroy wetlands and wooded areas at the site.

He did so in January following months of back and forth between the company and the environmental ministry, which concluded with Northvolt agreeing to various parameters to reduce the plant’s impact to the natural habitat there, according to court documents. 

The MCK meanwhile maintains it should have been consulted over the project, as it was consulted over the same lot of land in 2022 when a housing development project was proposed there. 

Back then, the band council recommended against the project, citing the proposed habitat destruction there as a threat to the rights of Onkwehón:we in the region, according to the application it filed to the court this January. That housing project ended up being rejected by the province.

The band council has also long told the ministry it has stewardship rights and responsibilities to the land there, as it’s Kanien’kehá:ka land.

“Historically, among the Five Nations Confederacy, the Mohawks were and continue to be recognized as Keepers of the Eastern Door,” the court filings quoted Council chief Ross Montour as writing in a letter to Bitzakidis in 2022. “We assert our governance rights which include our responsibility, as stewards of the lands and waters, to care for and protect the Kaniantarowanne (St. Lawrence River) ecosystem for future generations, by applying our own traditional laws and practices.”

An advisor to Quebec’s secretariat for Indigenous affairs countered that position in his sworn statements to the court, arguing the band council has failed to lay where their “geographic limits” lie regarding their ancestral title to the land. 

“While consulting the MCK website I found a map of a territory produced for illustration purposes which could be that targeted by their claim,” wrote Maxime Morin, a negotiation advisor for the secretariat. “It should be noted that the territory represented on this map and designated as the “Seigneury of Sault St. Louis, including current Kahnawake Mohawk Territory” does not extend to the municipalities of McMasterville and Saint-Basile-le-Grand,” where the Northvolt site resides.

The band council’s lawsuit is expected to be resolved through case management hearings at Quebec Superior Court, which have yet to be held.

Environmental ministry changes its tune

The MCK is expected to be consulted on subsequent phases of the construction project, Bitzakidis’ statement to the court revealed.

Those consultations will arise as the environmental ministry continues to assess authorization requests expected to come up over various aspects of the project.

That commitment was shared by officials from the ministry and Quebec’s secretariat for Indigenous relations on October 9, during a meeting at the band council’s office. Council chief Ross Montour, MCK grand chief Cody Diabo, and their legal counsel were all in attendance. So was Patrick Ragaz, one of their environmental advisors from the Kahnawake Environment Protection Office (KEPO).  

The ministry had already assured the MCK last fall it would be consulted over requests from Northvolt to withdraw water from the Richelieu River, but no other promises had been made.

“They should have consulted us at the outset, and should for every phase all the way through,” Montour told The Eastern Door.

Construction at the site has stalled in face of financial hardship. Last month, its parent company filed for bankruptcy protection. Quebec economy minister Christine Fréchette has since assured the $7 billion project is still projected to go ahead as planned, however.

At that meeting on October 9, officials also agreed to draft a document formalizing how the environmental ministry should approach consultations with the band council moving forward, in particular through noting the parameters under which it would be obligated to consult. 

Negotiations over the content of that document are still underway, Montour said.

“Our conversations were not all that positive, I would say, there’s a gap that needs to be bridged, and it’s greater than the distance of the Ile Aux Tourtes bridge over the Outaouais,” he said. “Their contention is that we have no established custodial rights. I don't care if it’s not been in the courts. It exists.”

The Eastern Door sought comment from both the environmental ministry and Indigenous affairs minister Ian Lafrenière, who heads the secretariat, to learn more about these discussions. The ministry didn’t respond. Lafrenière’s office did, but only shared a short comment saying it’s committed to creating mechanisms that’ll “benefit both of our nations.” 

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