Ann: Step up of engagement following Quebec regulatory decision, page-111

As per dfs

Environmental Assessment and Approvals
The Regulations Designating Physical Activities (SOR/2012-147) identify the physical activities that constitute the “designated projects” that may require an environmental assessment by the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency (CEAA). The CEAA is responsible for the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act (2012). As the project did not generate any “designated activity”, an impact study under the Canadian Environmental Assessment Act is not required.
On the Provincial side, as the project is designed to remain under a maximum threshold of 2,000 tpd, no Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) is required under the article 31.1 of the Environment Quality Act. Under this regulation, the permitting process would include a
formal public hearing administered by the BAPE (bureau d’audiences publiques en environnement).
Compliance with article 22 requirements, in principle, allows a more rapid permitting process without the BAPE formal public review. However, the project is facing social acceptability challenges because of its proximity to the Esker Saint-Mathieu-Berry.

On 29 June 2018, the Quebec Minister of Environment issued a press release inviting Sayona to submit the project to article 31.1 to answer public concerns and demonstrate social acceptability. At this stage the Company is progressing with the article 22 permitting option.

While there may be possible setbacks with the article 22 permitting, there is potential upside in terms of tonnage under the more formal article 31.1 process.

If required to undertake the BAPE process, the permitting period will likely be extended and may result in a rework of the project in relation to its mining and processing capacity.

As Sayona has stated they will respect the decision, they will most likely go ahead with BAPE. They will most likely increase tonnage....
I wonder how the protesters will respond to this? If they had not ignored the scientific evidence to show that the mine will not affect their water esker then......

It seems Sayona has been very compliant with the requests from the government. It has been stated several times that threshold will not exceed 2000 tonnage. Even the email reply from Paul also states that, yet it is still subject to BAPE.

Interesting times ahead.....