What does the new government of Quebec plan to do about Plan Nord, the massive $80-billion, 25-year initiative to mine an area of Quebec twice the size of France? The Globe and Mail reports, “No one believes Premier-elect Pauline Marois wants to sabotage the Plan Nord altogether… François Legault, head of the Coalition Avenir Québec, which holds the balance of power in the Marois minority government, has expressed concerns over the province’s generosity toward mining companies (for example, the $331-million the Charest government spent to build a 243-kilometre road through the Otish mountains to reach the Renard project, which could become the province’s first diamond mine). …(Also), the PQ campaigned to change the province’s mining regime, which is based on a 16 per cent royalty on each mine’s profits. They would replace it with a 5 per cent royalty on the gross value of production, coupled with a 30 per cent supertax on profits above an 8 per cent return on capital. These changes would bring in an extra $338-million in revenue to the government over five years.”
Quebec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir; Ghislain Picard, head of the Assembly of First Nations of Quebec and Labrador; the Innu of Uashat Mani-Utenam; Greenpeace Quebec; and Nature Quebec have all expressed opposition to Plan Nord. For Council of Canadians blogs on Plan Nord, please see http://canadians.org/blog/?s=%22plan+nord%22.
