For several years, the development of mining projects necessary for the energy transition has had several repercussions in our regions.
Being at the forefront of these mining developments, the municipal world is directly challenged by concerned citizens, and elected officials have therefore mobilized strongly to ensure the protection of territories, sensitive environments and water sources.
Faced with this situation, the municipalities have been increasingly proactive and have carried out, with the government, a great deal of work to increase our in-depth knowledge of the Quebec territory. This work has made it possible to target sectors and water resources that should be protected as a priority. A protection that does not currently exist in the face of the mining sector and the Law on the mines.
This means that when municipalities protect these strategic lands, mining companies can dig just below them. A particularly worrying situation since groundwater supplies nearly 90% of the inhabited territory and 20% of the Quebec population.
We have therefore taken steps with our members to increase the social acceptability of mining developments in Quebec, and today we are submitting several solutions to the government.
We also wish to reiterate that the mining industry is essential to the economic vitality of the regions and that there is no question of banning it from all of our territories. This industry is the basis of the local economy of certain RCMs and many have demonstrated that it is possible to do things well.
The challenge is rather to ensure that the projects are carried out in the right places and, according to the Federation, this goes through the development plan.
To exploit these critical minerals, Quebec will have to involve the host communities more, rely on the capacities of the municipal world to develop its territory and put in place a simplified process to protect fresh water, drinking water resources and natural environments of interest present in our territories.
Essentially, our efforts will now have to be concentrated on promising projects that are located in the territories most favorable to their development and their eventual implementation.
By increasing the social acceptability of exploration and mining projects, we will at the same time increase their probability of success and the associated spinoffs. A win-win situation for all of Quebec.
Like those who built modern Quebec, the Prime Minister and his government want to lead a major change of vision to maximize Quebec’s contribution to the energy transition and participate in the related spinoffs. As mentioned, the development plan is the essential document to allow Quebec to reconcile the different activities and uses of our territory and allow it to take this shift.
However, revising a schema is long and complex at this time. It will therefore be necessary, between now and the implementation of the new National Policy on Architecture and Land Use Planning, for Québec to quickly review its process for delimiting territories incompatible with mining activity (TIAM) to integrate :
- an accelerated process to protect the water on our territories and link the process with the work already done;
- the addition of the protection of natural environments of interest in the activities likely to justify a TIAM and aligning the process with the work already carried out;
- automatic identification with TIAM of any expansion of urban perimeters as well as those carried out since 2013;
- the application of the same separation distances already provided for in TIAM to all residences, whether inside or outside an urban perimeter;
- the addition of separation distances for each of the activities likely to justify a TIAM provided for in OGAT-Mines;
- the automatic extension of temporary suspensions to cover the territory of abandoned or non-renewed claims.
For our members and all the prefects and prefects present this week at the Assembly of MRCs, this is the way to go to optimize the management of the territory in Quebec and to maximize the benefits for all Quebecers.