The day after unveiling the list of 89 companies benefiting from pollution rights, Cascades wanted to defend its environmental integrity and guaranteed compliance with the standards.
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“Cascades operates within applicable standards and environmental requirements and has not negotiated rights to pollute,” the company defended in a press release on Thursday.
On Wednesday, the government published a list of 89 companies that enjoy derogations from applicable environmental laws.
Cascades’ various pulp and paper mills were on that list.
The company has admitted to being in possession of hygiene certificates, ie ministerial permits, while ensuring that it operates legally.
A decontamination certificate is a permit granted to a company to exceed Quebec’s pollution standards, but with the aim of reducing its industrial emissions.
According to the press release, Cascades “emits 45% fewer greenhouse gases, uses 4.4 times less water and uses 2.4 times less energy than the North American paper industry average.” In fact, it would have set stricter ecological “requirements”.
The company also wanted to point out that Cascades East Angus and Cascades Lupel factories in Trois-Rivières, two factories on the list, no longer belong to Cascades.
The first decontamination certificates were distributed to pulp and paper companies in 1993.