The uncertainty hanging over the polluting Horne foundry in Rouyn-Noranda is reminiscent of the fate of the Norton plant in Cap-de-la-Madeleine, in Mauricie, which had to close its doors a while ago. more than 30 years due to its polluting fumes.

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The Rouyn-Noranda smelter releases arsenic into the air. In Cap-de-la-Madeleine, Norton, which produced silicon carbide, the factory of more than a hundred employees rejected blackish dust and gave off sulfur odors.

Coal was used in its manufacturing process. A resident of the neighborhood then took the lead in a protest movement.

The Ministry of the Environment had unsuccessfully issued an order against the company in 1988. Norton had summoned the press to announce the permanent closure of its Cap-de-la-Madeleine plant in February 1990.

The then regional president of the CSN believes that the comparison with Rouyn-Noranda is probably not entirely fair.

“We are in another era. We are completely elsewhere. I could say with nuances that in 1990, the sensitivity for the environment was relative”, analyzed Guy Rousseau.

The former mayor of Cap-de-la-Madeleine remembers that the problem was practically insoluble.

“In these circumstances, we were freer to make a decision with our heart rather than with our head. So we said people are suffering from it, something has to be done, ”recalled Jean-Claude Beaumier.

The quality of life of the factory's neighbors will prevail. The ex-mayor noted, however, that when the factory was set up during World War II to first make bombs, there were no residents for miles around.