The Legault government encourages cities to test and improve air quality on their territory.

Environment Minister Benoit Charette is urging local authorities to follow suit from the city of Quebec, which on Tuesday presented a report on air quality and a four-year action plan to intervene.

It is usually the Ministry of the Environment that has air quality measurement stations, and air quality is not the responsibility of local authorities.

But in early 2022, the City of Quebec decided to address the problems with airborne pollutants and particles in the Limoilou sector, particularly nickel, as residents of the sector made numerous allegations and were bothered by a mysterious issue red dust.

The Legault government backed the city’s approach and at a press conference at the capital’s city hall on Tuesday midday, Mr Charette appealed to other municipalities.

As for Quebec City’s leadership, other municipalities are entirely free to do the same. We encourage them, that’s for sure.said the environment minister along with Quebec Mayor Bruno Marchand and Mario Girard, the great boss of the Port of Quebec – often accused of being responsible for Limoilou’s pollution.

The Ministry of the Environment will always support the municipalities in these questions added Mr Charette, who gave no indication of the funds the government might allocate to them for this purpose.

accountability

Mr Marchand went in the same direction by calling for accountability.

We all have a responsibility, we can’t say: It’s up to the other person, not mehe explained.

Do we have to name a culprit? If we name a culprit, it means other companies and other websites can take action. It’s easy to say: It’s not up to me, it’s up to the other person. We all have a role to play.

About ten sampling stations were deployed in Quebec from October to December 2022 to collect data, including two by the ministry, three by the city and five by the Port of Quebec.

Result: Air pollution in the region comes from three main sources: transport, wood stoves and construction sites.

The 24 hour standard Nickel content set at 70 nanograms per cubic metre. And there was only one transgression 24 hour standard in relation to the total amount of suspended particles (TSP).

Mr Girard believes this is the result of new nickel concentrate offloading methods being introduced by Glencore, which are much more stringent.

For his part, Mr Charette said he was comforted. The government’s controversial decision to raise nickel air standards in Quebec, while upset, was based on science.

The course supported us very well. What we said then, we can repeat with even more support.