Canada’s Quebec launches big mining expansion plan – Mining Weekly.com/Reuters (May 10, 2011)

Mining Weekly is South Africa’s premier source of weekly news on mining developments in Africa’s most important industry. Mining Weekly provides in-depth coverage of mining projects and the personalities reshaping the mining industry. In order to advance Mining Weekly’s objective of positioning itself as a leading global provider of mining news, a full-time correspondent is based in Toronto, Canada and another in Perth, Australia. 

TORONTO – The Canadian province of Quebec plans to develop its huge frozen northern reaches into a powerhouse of mining and renewable energy, targeting C$80 billion ($83 billion) of private and public investment.

Quebec’s 25-year “Plan Nord,” launched on Monday, envisages funding for infrastructure, mines and the development of renewable energy, taking advantage of an improving investment climate as the earth warms and polar ice melts.

Quebec says the region has abundant deposits of nickel, cobalt, platinum group metals, zinc, iron ore, ilmenite, gold, lithium, vanadium and rare-earth metals. “Northern Quebec has incomparable mining potential,” Natural Resources Minister Serge Simard said in a release.

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B.C.’s mining industry becoming more sustainable – by Pierre Gratton (Vancouver Sun – May 10, 2011)

The Vancouver Sun is the largest daily newspaper in British Columbia.

Pierre Gratton is the president and CEO of the Mining Association of British Columbia.

The mining industry is growing in British Columbia. B.C. mines and smelters that have been operating for many years are making major investments in modernization, four new mines are in construction, several more are in advanced permitting and mineral exploration spending is rising. Billions of new investment dollars are flowing into B.C., all creating wealth for the province and thousands of jobs and business opportunities for British Columbians and their families; clearly, we can say with confidence the mining renaissance is upon us.

As the mining sector embarks on a period of growth not seen in a generation, it is more important than ever to find new and better ways to extract the minerals that are critical to a clean and green economy. Over the last couple of decades, the mining industry in B.C. has undergone dramatic changes in the way it approaches sustainability, environmental obligations and relationships with its communitiesof-interest.

Today, the sector is the safest heavy industry in the province, a major investor in research and development, a leading employer and contractor of first nations and, through B.C.’s internationally recognized Health, Safety and Reclamation Code for Mining, is continuously improving environmental management and reclamation practices.

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Quebec plans $80-billion investment in northern development – by Rheal Sequin (Globe and Mail – May 10, 2011)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous impact and influence on Canada’s political and business elite as well as the rest of the country’s print, radio and television media.

Premier Jean Charest has unveiled an ambitious multibillion-dollar plan to develop Quebec’s remote northern region, creating a legacy project that he hopes will generate a new source of revenue for the cash-strapped province.

The economic proposal, Plan Nord, involves a region north of the 49th parallel that is twice the size of France and covers more than 70 per cent of the province’s territory.

The proposal involves $80-billion in public and private investment over the next 25 years, Mr. Charest said. In return, he said, it will generate an estimated $14-billion in revenue over the same period and contribute $162-billion to the province’s gross domestic product.

“What we are unveiling here is Quebec’s future,” Mr. Charest said. “On the political level, this is one of the best moments in my life. This is one of the reasons I got involved in politics.”

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QUEBEC GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: The Plan Nord: The Project of a Generation – Decision-making Hinges on the Protection of the Environment, Ecosystems and Biodiversity

Québec, May 9, 2011 –  “The environmental component is at the forefront of concerns linked to the approach adopted under the Plan Nord. Accordingly, the protection of the environment, ecosystems and northern biodiversity will be central to all decision-making,” Québec Premier Jean Charest noted.

Under the Plan Nord, the government is committed to setting aside 50% of the northern territory for purposes other than industrial ones, environmental protection and safeguarding biodiversity. A vast network of protected areas that accounts for 12% of the area of the territory that the Plan Nord covers will be created by 2015.

“We have adopted an unprecedented approach to protect and develop Québec’s outstanding northern heritage. This vast natural territory has extensive, varied fauna and flora along with often untapped wealth. We are proud to guarantee the long-term survival of this heritage and ensure that it is offered to current and future generations,” added Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks Pierre Arcand.

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QUEBEC GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: The Plan Nord: The Project of a Generation – Ensure Community well-being and Development

Québec, May 9, 2011 –  “The enhancement of living conditions in Aboriginal and local communities is a key concern under the Plan Nord. For this reason, we have made provision for initiatives in the realms of education, manpower, housing, health and social services, and culture, to foster community well-being and development,” Premier Jean Charest said.

“The North has abundant, varied resources, but its principal asset is its population, noteworthy for its youth and desire to develop its environment. The populations in the territory that the Plan Nord covers are young and make up a substantial labour pool. Our government believes that it is necessary to rely on occupational training to guarantee their social and economic development,” added Minister responsible for Native Affairs Geoffrey Kelley.

The gouvernement du Québec’s 2011-2016 action plan to implement the Plan Nord makes provision for investments totalling $1.6 billion. Of this amount, $382 million will be earmarked for essentially social measures, especially in the realms of housing, health, education, culture and the reduction in the cost of living.

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QUEBEC GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: The Plan Nord: The Project of a Generation – Establishment of the Société du Plan Nord and $2.1 billion in investments over five years

Québec, May 9, 2011 –  “The Plan Nord is ambitious. Its implementation will necessitate essential investments to facilitate access to the territory and enhance the quality of life of its inhabitants.  The new business model developed in respect of projects under the Plan Nord has unquestionably altered the manner in which Québec will fund infrastructure and public services. Starting today, construction and maintenance costs will be shared throughout the infrastructure’s useful life by businesses, the communities concerned, the gouvernement du Québec and other users,” Québec Premier Jean Charest noted.

Establishment of the Société du Plan Nord

The government is announcing that it will establish through legislation the Société du Plan Nord to carry out projects and coordinate all of the investments. The government corporation will oversee the public investments in the social and transportation infrastructure sectors.

Moreover, the corporation will establish direct ties with businesses and local and Aboriginal communities to support their projects. “Partnerships between the private and public sectors and the communities will seek to satisfy several uses. Accordingly, transportation, energy and telecommunications infrastructure can be built to afford access to a new mining camp and also provide access to trapping lands, outfitting operations and other tourist infrastructure. In this way, the development of the North will rely on integrated planning and become a model of sustainable development,” Minister Normandeau added.

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QUEBEC GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: The Plan Nord: The Project of a Generation – Harness Northern Québec’s Enormous Economic Potential

Québec, May 9, 2011 –  “The Plan Nord, one of the biggest projects in Québec’s history, seeks to shape and develop a new economic space with enormous potential. Through its scope and the extent of its spinoff, the Plan Nord will benefit all regions of Québec and all sectors of our economy,” Québec Premier Jean Charest said.

“By advocating the adoption of concrete measures to responsibly develop the vast territory’s economic potential, the Plan Nord will facilitate the sustainable development of energy, forest, mining, wildlife, tourism and bio-food resources. It will foster business investment that ensures Quebecers’ prosperity,” Minister responsible for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region and the Nord-du-Québec region Pierre Corbeil added.

It should be noted that the Plan Nord will be implemented over 25 years and lead, during that time, to $80 billion in investments. It will create or consolidate, on average, 20 000 jobs a year in addition to engendering $14 billion in revenues for the government and Québec society.

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QUEBEC GOVERNMENT NEWS RELEASE: The Plan Nord – “The Plan Nord is the project of a generation” – Jean Charest

Québec, May 9, 2011 –  Québec Premier Jean Charest, Deputy Premier, Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Plan Nord Nathalie Normandeau, Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food and Minister responsible for the Abitibi-Témiscamingue region and the Nord-du-Québec region Pierre Corbeil, Minister of Sustainable Development, Environment and Parks Pierre Arcand, Minister responsible for Native Affairs Geoffrey Kelley, and Minister for Natural Resources and Wildlife and Minister responsible for the Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean region and the Côte-Nord region Serge Simard today launched the Plan Nord, one of the most ambitious projects ever undertaken in Québec and the project of a generation. The Plan Nord first offered a perspective of sustainable development in Québec and is now one of the biggest economic, social and environmental development projects in Québec’s history.

“The Plan Nord will be carried out over 25 years and engender investments of over $80 billion. It will create or consolidate 20 000 jobs a year, on average, and generate $14 billion in revenue for the government and Québec society. The economic spinoff and social development stemming from the Plan Nord will enhance the living conditions of northern populations. Through the needs for manpower, knowledge and expertise that it engenders, its benefits will be felt throughout Québec. The Plan Nord will be to the coming decades what the development of La Manicouagan and James Bay was to the 1960s and 1970s,” Premier Charest said.

A unique approach

The Plan Nord is one of the most ambitious projects that Québec has undertaken. The approach adopted is equally ambitious. Since January 2010, a number of Aboriginal and local communities have worked together. Over 60 meetings were held of sectorial and consensus-building working groups in which over 450 people participated. Through its representative, participatory approach, the Plan Nord will be a unique model of sustainable development that reconciles social and economic development and environmental protection.

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Resource Rents, the Ring of Fire and the Future – by Livio Di Matteo

Livio Di Matteo is Professor of Economics at Lakehead University in Thunder Bay, Ontario.  Visit his new Economics Blog “Northern Economist” at http://ldimatte.shawwebspace.ca/

May 9, 2011

American historian David Potter’s book People of Plenty argued that resource abundance shaped the American attitude towards possibility and opportunity.  Abundant resources set the stage for wealth accumulation and created a society that believes that everyone can become rich through their own work and effort and that initiative and opportunity are the key to social mobility and success. 

In Canada, we also have a tradition of resource abundance but it has generated not so much an ethos of aggressive individualism but one of more government involvement in the economy.  Indeed, the resource rents from natural resources have played a role in government finance whether it was late nineteenth century Ontario’s forest sector (which generated at its peak 20-25 percent of provincial government revenues) or energy in Alberta and Newfoundland and Labrador today.

As Herb Emery and Ron Kneebone have recently written in Alberta’s Problems of Plenty (May 2011, Policy Options), in the Alberta context the main role of resource abundance and resource rents has been to augment both private and public consumption. 

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