PORT-DANIEL–GASCONS, QC, Feb. 19, 2015 /CNW Telbec/ - McInnis Cement said today that it welcomes the Quebec Government's decision for the introduction of draft legislation confirming that its cement plant project is not subject to the environmental assessment process, recognizing the prior thirty confirmations issued by governments between 1995 and 2014. The company is confident that Bill 37 will dispel the uncertainty surrounding the project and will help in maintaining jobs. The plant will create approximately 2300 jobs / year during construction, including 700 on the site. In operation, the plant will provide 400 direct and indirect jobs.
"Our project was duly authorized in 1996, before regulations subjected new cement plant construction to the environmental assessment process," said Christian Gagnon, CEO of McInnis Cement. "In addition, over the last few days, we have finalized an agreement with environmental groups establishing the creation of a permanent environmental follow-up subcommittee, a customized solution for addressing environmental issues in connection with our project and ensuring long term oversight," he noted.
At the request of McInnis Cement, additional conditions will be formally added to its Certificate of Authorization to operate the cement plant, including:
- Continuous monitoring of the air emissions from the cement plant;
- Compliance with standards more stringent than those currently applied in Quebec to existing cement plants, namely the American standard NESHAP 2015 for new cement plants (National Emissions Standard for Hazardous Air Pollutants – new plant).
"We are currently building a cement plant that will become a model in North America for its environmental performance. We agree to subject ourselves to additional conditions with the Government of Quebec, via our Certificate of Authorization to operate. We are pleased that these new conditions, as well as our recent agreement concerning environmental issues, were acknowledged by the Government, that has chosen to remove the uncertainty to which the legal application raised doubt regarding our project - in our view primarily an anti-competitive approach," added Gagnon.
Gagnon expressed his wish that the National Assembly would quickly adopt this bill and provide the government and represented parliamentary groups all required collaboration.
ABOUT McINNIS CEMENT
McInnis Cement is building a cement plant representing one of the largest industrial projects currently under construction in the eastern part of North America. The plant will have an initial production capacity of 2.2 million metric tonnes of cement per year. It is located in the Port-Daniel–Gascons city in the Gaspésie region. The site was chosen because of the quality of its limestone deposit and the possibility to build a deep water maritime terminal. Thanks to its state-of-the-art technology, the Port-Daniel–Gascons cement plant will meet the most stringent environmental standards and will therefore have one of the lowest environmental footprints in the cement industry. Project updates are available on www.mcinniscement.com and on Twitter @Ciment_McInnis.
SOURCE McInnis Cement
Maryse Tremblay, Director Communications & Corporate Social Responsibility, 418 391-7525
Share this article