"Quebec To Approve $1.1-Bn Cement Plant Without Environmental Review"

"Opposition parties and environmentalists slammed the Couillard government on Thursday for green-lighting a $1.1-billion cement works project without a review by Quebec’s environmental bureau.

The McInnis Cement plant in Port-Daniel—Gascons, in Gaspésie, could top the list of industrial polluters in the province.

The provincial government plans to exempt the project from an assessment by the Bureau des audiences publique sur l’environnement (BAPE), Quebec’s advisory office of environmental hearings. The company has said the project shouldn’t be subject to an environmental review because it was submitted in May 1995, a month before the law requiring such an assessment came into effect."

Geoffrey Vendeville reports for the Montreal Gazette February 19, 2015.