FRACKING IN QUEBEC
(Updated - April 11,
2011)
Quebec's
Environment
Minister,
Peter
Arcand,
grilled
by
reporters on shale gas
developments in Quebec. Quebec's environmental impact agency, BAPE, has finished its shale gas report, and Arcand stated on February 28, 2011 that he plans to make the report public "as promptly as possible."
The Quebec government released its public review report on fracking in Quebec at 2pm (Canadian Eastern Time), February 28, 2011. The BAPE's report 273 (Rapport 273) is written in French (English translation was scheduled for release on March 18th) and is called Developpement durable de l'industrie des gaz de schiste au Quebec (Rapport d'enquete et d'audience publique). There are some good maps in this document. Here is the direct link to the french report (11.4 megabytes):
http://www.bape.gouv.qc.ca/sections/rapports/publications/bape273.pdf
Fracking issues in Quebec, as reported in the media and on the internet, are primarily available only in the French language (except for the Montreal Gazette). This is also the case for issues and organizational activities by citizen groups confronted by looming fracking developments. Because these issues are fundamentally significant for all Canadians, is why this website has started an information page in the English language devoted to Fracking in Quebec.
The evolving inter-community resistance by ever-more, well-organized, Quebec citizen groups situated throughout the Saint Lawrence River Lowlands area now have a new inter-regional website:
http://www.regroupementgazdeschiste.org/
(official site of the Comité Inter-Régional Gaz de Schiste
de la Vallée du St-Laurent. Québec, Canada)
These citizen groups have called upon a
provincial-wide
moratorium on shale gas development. On February 8, 2011, the groups
presented the Quebec government with a (growing) 120,000 signature
petition to
that effect. The numerous shale gas leases let by the Quebec government
in
southern
Quebec
(see
link,
Maps
of
Shale
Gas
Leases)
since 2006
encompass an area where the majority of Quebec's population live, and
is why there is such an active public movement.
After Will Koop, the editor of this website, and Coordinator of the BC Tap Water Alliance, appeared in Ottawa before the federal Standing Committee on Natural Resources on February 3, 2011, he then journeyed to Quebec to visit with citizen activists and gained a valuable introductory perspective on the fracking activities in the St. Lawrence Lowlands, which led to the production of this site about Quebec.
On February 6th, the citizen groups held a day-long inter-regional workshop at a hotel in Drummondville and made numerous resolutions on their campaign concerning fracking developments in the Utica shales in lower Quebec. There, Koop gave a summary presentation on fracking developments in northeastern British Columbia, and aired a french subtitle version of his YouTube video, My Very First Frack. CBC french television aired a short feature of the event on the noon and 5pm news programs of that day.
Of note, Quebecers and British Columbians have many commonalities in the fracking controversies, as shared with many other Canadians in their provincial jurisdictions:
- provincial governments issue petroleum (gas & oil)
leases on public lands without careful and meaningful public
involvement, or without any notice or involvment at all;
- provincial governments have no long-term strategic,
integrated environmental plans or environmental cumulative effects
study plans for the petroleum industry;
- old legislation or laws to do with mineral and petroleum exploration allow for discrimatory authority by our governments that grant proprietory rights to petroleum companies and corporations, and not to landowners or affected public stakeholders. Because these old laws are outdated and one-sided, there is a great immediate need for reform to properly revise them through careful, transparent public involvment and review.
| Stop Fracking British Columbia Home Page |
| Quebec Websites and Blogs |
| February 23, 2011 Report: Ants to the
Picnic (Pdf file: 2,942 kb) |
| Maps of Shale Gas Leases and Permit List |
| March 15, 2011 Backgrounder: Shale Gas & Oil Companies in Quebec (Pdf - 3.6 Mb) |
| April 11, 2011 The Demand for a Moratorium (Friends of the Richelieu) |
| NEWS Articles March 1 - March 18, 2011 (Pdf - 928 Kb) |
| English News Articles July 25, 2010 - Feb.28, 2011 (Pdf - 2.2 Mb) |
| Petrolia's Lawsuit against Ugo Lapointe -
Who and What is On Trial ?? |
| Public Review Process on Shale Gas -
September 2010 to February 2011 |
| CBC Radio 3-Part Series - New Energy and Social Acceptability in Quebec February 21-23, 2011 |