The mining boom in Quebec has resulted in a 65% increase in exploration titles for potential deposits, said Tuesday the Minister of Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina.
As of February 28, his ministry counted 302,564 mining claims, compared to 182,807 in 2020-2021, indicated Mr.me Blanchette Vézina during a parliamentary committee examining the activities of her department.
These titles allow mining exploration over an area of 16 million hectares of Quebec territory.
The majority of active mining claims, 289,602, are in northern Quebec, compared to 28,463 in the south.
Faced with the concerns that this raises in the communities concerned, the Minister wanted to be reassuring. Only 20% of the claims are the subject of work, she relativized.
“There is indeed a number of claims which is not dependent on the number of mines, which fluctuates according to the value of the potential minerals”, affirmed the Minister.
Quebec Solidarity (QS) MP Alejandra Zaga Mendez said that currently, overnight, whole villages are the subject of mining claims, especially in southern Quebec.
“The 28,000 are in resort areas and are also in protected area projects,” she said.
Consultation in progress
A consultation is underway to make a more harmonious development of mining activity by referring to the current regulatory framework, in force since 2013.
“The consultation process will lead to results, changes, possibly perhaps in the mining activity so that it harmonizes better and better with the territory and regional realities,” declared the Minister.
Mme Zaga Mendez emphasized that mineral rights take precedence over land use planning.
“Are you going to put an end to the precedence of mining law over development tools? she asked.
Mme Blanchette-Vézina refused to give an indication of the government’s orientation in the face of this request, which has been repeated for years to previous governments.
“We are in the process of collecting the ideas, the solutions envisaged by the various stakeholders”, she replied, referring to the consultations in progress.
The minister acknowledged that the Quebec state does not have the power to withdraw a claim. However, it has already happened to the government to buy them back from the holders.
Mme Blanchette-Vézina argued that municipalities still have the power to exempt certain sectors of their territory from mining activity when it comes to protecting a drinking water supply, or to protect tourist or historical sectors.
Liberal MP Gregory Kelley pointed out that it is, however, faster to obtain a mining claim than an exemption for a given territory, for a regional county municipality (MRC).
“Making a mining claim does not take a lot of time, but the other process for an MRC, to apply for an exemption of part of the territory, can take several weeks or months before having a response from the ministry” , he said
Forest vampirism
Earlier, QS accused the government of entrusting the equivalent of a blood bank to vampires over the amount of timber taken by logging companies.
Mme Zaga Mendez lamented that the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests relies on companies to measure the amount of trees that are cut.
“Unfortunately, what we see is that it is employees of the same forestry companies who are in charge of weighing and converting, she said. When we are those who are favored by the volume that comes out, there may be people who say “I’m not going to weigh the pencil too hard”. »
Mme Zaga Mendez pointed out that this information is used to establish the amounts that the Quebec state can claim from them in stumpage fees, a model that she would like to change.
“It’s a bit like giving the key to the blood bank to vampires, to continue to let the companies themselves measure the wood which they will then benefit from with the cutting rights”, she said. said, then defending himself from attacking companies.
The Minister of Natural Resources and Forests accused Ms.me Zaga Mendez for painting a bleak picture of forestry companies.
“I note that you consider these companies, which are important for the development of our regions, as vampires,” she said.
No fraud
Relying on reports from external consultants, the minister defended the compliance of her department’s operations.
“In the interest of continuous improvement, we want to ensure that there are no practices that are non-compliant, that would not be in the interest of Quebecers or that there would be fraud,” said she said. We are confident to tell you today that there is none. »
The firms MNP and Quantum controlled the operations.
“We have found nothing that leads us to believe that there could be significant discrepancies in the volumes of wood harvested, measured and invoiced, in accordance with the normative framework,” the Minister declared.
Liberal MNA André Fortin for his part noted that the department exceeds its reforestation objectives in Abitibi-Témiscamingue, but then misses its maintenance targets for the trees planted.
According to Mr. Fortin, this risks compromising forestry capacity in the coming years.