With the enthusiasm for critical minerals needed in particular for the electrification of transportation, new mining projects are approaching our communities and are now settling in much more densely populated areas.
Posted yesterday at 2:00 p.m.
Unfortunately, this enthusiasm poses a problem and the reflex of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MERN) to decide alone when establishing a mine on a territory constantly leads to problems. A mine cannot be established without the involvement of the host community and decisions can no longer be made only in Quebec.
In 2016, the National Assembly amended the law giving the power to MRCs (regional county municipalities) to identify territories incompatible with mining activity (TIAM) in their development plans. As the Act also provides, the plans must obtain the approval of Québec to come into force. With all the problems that regularly make the headlines, it is clear that the extremely restrictive approach based essentially on the exploitation of the resource adopted by the MERN for the implementation of this measure prevents reasonable and justified protection of our territories. and our communities.
For example, the refusal of MERN officials to protect Mont Rigaud and the groundwater recharge areas of the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges is simply unacceptable. The MRC, in collaboration with university researchers, has demonstrated the significant risks of contamination of this source which, it should be remembered, supplies nearly 100,000 citizens of 18 of the 23 municipalities of the region every day. The security of supply and the quality of drinking water in the context of climate change should be a priority, rather than favoring mining companies to the detriment of the interests of communities.
Difficult situations in RCMs such as Argenteuil, Laurentides or Papineau are other convincing examples that the Department’s current way of doing things is outdated and must be reviewed quickly.
This situation, the great diversity of our territory and the different uses of it confirm to us once again that the “wall-to-wall” decided by Quebec is inapplicable and that the conflicts of use on our territories will multiply if no action is taken by the next government. Political parties are committed to ensuring the social acceptability of any new mining project, but this responsibility can no longer be the prerogative of Quebec.
In this regard, the Government of Quebec has identified the way to proceed in this area in its National Policy on Architecture and Land Use Planning published last June 6: “bring decision-making closer to citizens and coordinate our actions by ensuring their consistency, in particular by enhancing the integrating role played by the planning and development plan”. The development plan is the document which must reconcile local and national priorities with regard to the management of the territory, which signifies the end of the archaic precedence of the Mining Act and the centralized management of the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources on the territory and the subsoil of the territory.
Clearly, the decision can no longer be the sole discretion of the minister, it must be the result of a political exchange between the latter and the members of the MRC council, an exchange allowing the two parties to communicate and reconcile their vision and their objectives for the sustainable use of the territory.
On the strength of their experience acquired over the past 40 years, the RCMs and local municipalities have demonstrated that they are able to plan their territory to maximize the social acceptance of projects and the sustainable development of their territory. It is not a question of prohibiting an activity from all of our territories, but of taking the necessary measures to align mining with the concerns of our communities, to better take into account the realities of all of our regions.
The Fédération québécoise des municipalités is therefore today calling on all political parties to commit to reforming the TIAM process and to recognizing the precedence of development plans over other territorial planning to ensure that the interests of our communities are respected. . For the prefects and mayors of Quebec, this is the path to follow to optimize the management of the territory in Quebec and ensure its sustainable use.
* Co-signatories: Benoit Lauzon, mayor of Thurso and prefect of the MRC Papineau; Patrick Bousez, mayor of Rivière-Beaudette and prefect of the MRC de Vaudreuil-Soulanges; Marc L’Heureux, mayor of Brébeuf and prefect of the MRC des Laurentides; Isabelle Perreault, Mayor of Saint-Alphonse-Rodriguez and Prefect of the MRC of Matawinie; Chantal Lamarche, prefect of the MRC de la Vallée de la Gatineau; Scott Pearce, Mayor of the Township of Gore and Warden of the MRC Argenteuil; André Genest, prefect of the MRC des Pays-des-Haut; Marc Carrière, prefect of the MRC des Collines-de-l’Outaouais