This afternoon, Jessica Wells and I stopped by the Matamec Mining Corporation office in Témiscaming Québec to reiterate the Green Party of Québec’s opposition to their controversial rare earth mining project near Lake Kipawa.
The project that Matamec is proposing involves using over 160k litres of water per hour, 365 days per year as well as massive toxic and mildly radioactive tailings ponds that would be located just a few hundred meters from natural water bodies.
Three years ago when the Green Party of Quebec first became involved with this issue, Toyota was backing the project and had pledged to buy 100% of the minerals extracted for use in their electric vehicles.
Once the opposition began to build and the Eagle village First Nation announced their opposition Toyota divested from the project.
Since then, Matamec has received millions of dollars of taxpayer funds, provided by the Quebec government, to continue exploring the geological formation that is simply not exploitable due the environmental impacts.
If this mine, that is designed to continue our dépendance on private vehicles were to go forward, the drinking water of hundreds of thousands of people who live in proximity to the Ottawa river would be put at risk.
We simply cannot afford to overlook the environmental impacts associated with electric vehicle production. The only truly sustainable solution to our transportation needs is public transit.
STOP Matamec!
In solidarity,
Alex Tyrrell
Leader of the Green Party of Québec
