Charest touts Plan Nord on campaign trail – by Daneil LeBlanc – (Globe and Mail – August 10, 2012)

The Globe and Mail is Canada’s national newspaper with the second largest broadsheet circulation in the country. It has enormous influence on Canada’s political and business elite.

VAL D’OR, QUEBEC – It’s the topic on which he is most proactive, promising it will play a key role in fulfilling the main plank in his platform: creating 250,000 jobs by 2017 if he forms the next government.

The Plan Nord is more than the Quebec Liberal Leader’s priority for a fourth mandate. The ambitious, 25-year, $80-billion economic program to develop natural resources in the province’s north is designed to be his main legacy. Launched during his third term in office, the Plan Nord is supposed to be to Mr. Charest what the massive James Bay hydro-electric project was to his predecessor, Robert Bourassa, in the 1970s.

Not surprisingly, most of Mr. Charest’s daily announcements are somehow linked to the Plan Nord and job creation, such as a promise to introduce Plan Nord RRSPs and to offer more long-distance training in fields such as mining and forestry. Most of his industrial visits – he does one a day – are linked to his dream of northern riches.

Still, there is no guarantee Mr. Charest will still be in power after the Sept. 4 election. Every day of the campaign, he has to bat away questions about other issues, from student protests to allegations of widespread corruption to the threat of a third referendum on sovereignty. On Friday, he had to deal with negative poll numbers, which show his Quebec Liberals in trouble, especially with the francophone electorate that has an overwhelming sway in a majority of ridings.

But whatever else is thrown at him by his adversaries and the media, Mr. Charest still talks about the Plan Nord every day, frequently arguing that the project “would be in jeopardy” if either the Parti Québécois or the Coalition Avenir Quebec were to form the next government.

The Plan Nord includes tourism and agricultural projects, but the main planks are mining, forestry and energy projects, including more hydro-electricity with the ongoing development of La Romaine. The taxes and royalties from the project, he argues, are essential to sustaining the province’s health-care and education system.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politics/elections/election-blog/charest-touts-plan-nord-on-campaign-trail/article4476118/