LNG / Gazoduq project: towards a new president of the hearings?

Six groups opposed to the construction of a gas liquefaction plant in Saguenay demand the resignation of Denis Bergeron, who is chairing the environmental hearings concerning the LNG project.

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“He has a favorable bias towards the project. He has shown remarkable complacency towards the promoter and, on the contrary, a certain bluntness towards opponents, ”said Mouvement Québec Indépendant, No to an oil spill in the St. Lawrence, Prosperity without petroleum, The planet s’ invites to parliament, Regroupement Vigilance Hydrocarbure Québec and Collectif abitibien Gazoduq, let’s talk about it! in a joint statement on Thursday.

They maintain that Denis Bergeron allowed the promoter of the gas transformation plant in Saguenay “to assert falsehoods both during his presentation and during the questions (LNG gas will in no way make it possible to reduce greenhouse gases. greenhouse being a more polluting fracking gas than coal) ”.

These groups also accuse him of having refused to answer a question in order to know whether he would consider the GHGs emitted during extraction in his calculation to assess the negative impacts on the environment.

They also argue that the chairman of the environmental hearings reduced the number of questions per speaker to the strict minimum, that is to say one, and that some “were cut off not even 20 seconds from the start of their only question in order to cut all the bets. in context often necessary for a good understanding ”.

They once again stressed that Denis Bergeron does not have the necessary neutrality vis-à-vis the gas industry, since he worked from 1995 to 2011 for the Canadian Association of Industry and Chemistry.

They reiterated that to divide this initiative into two pieces, the gas pipeline which crosses the Abitibi (the Gazoduq project) and the plant in Saguey (LNG project) does not make sense, because there “would be no liquefaction plant without the construction of the gas pipeline and there would be no gas pipeline without the liquefaction plant ”.

These six groups are opposed to hearings on LNG taking place only in Saguenay, since it is not a regional project: the project concerns other territories such as Abitibi and the broadcasts. of GHGs generated are global. According to them, hearings should take place in Abitibi, Montreal and Quebec.