Quebec gas in peril as PQ signals ban – by Sophie Cousineau, Bertrand Marotte and Rheal Seguin (Globe and Mail – September 21, 2012)

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MONTREAL, QUEBEC CITY — Quebec’s new Natural Resources Minister has signalled she will move to ban hydraulic fracturing even as she ordered a new inquiry into the practice, a position that puts development of the province’s rich resources of natural gas in doubt.

“I cannot see the day when the extraction of natural gas by the fracking method can be done in a safe way,” said Martine Ouellet, as she walked to her first cabinet meeting in Quebec City.

This former Hydro-Québec engineer and long-time defender of the province’s water reserves also reiterated the Parti Québécois’s position on the province’s nascent shale gas industry. “We will impose a sweeping moratorium, both on exploration and on extraction of shale gas,” she said.

Ms. Ouellet’s statements dispel hopes the industry had that the PQ government would tone down its electoral rhetoric against the gas and mining industry. “If her decision is taken even before the studies are completed, it sends a very bad message to investors and developers,” said Yves-Thomas Dorval, president of the Conseil du Patronat du Québec, the province’s lobby for big business.

During the campaign, the PQ promised to reform the mining regime, which would be costlier to the industry, and to cancel the $58-million loan that the Liberals offered to the Jeffrey asbestos mine. It also wants to raise taxes on Quebec’s highest income earners. And it will ask the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec to invest $10-billion more in the economy.

These promises have created uneasiness in the business community. Decision makers doubt that the province will thrive in such an environment, despite Premier Pauline Marois’s stated intentions of creating prosperity.

“At some point, Pauline Marois is going to need revenues, and she is going to realize that she cannot keep on alienating business leaders,” Lucien Bouchard, the former PQ premier who now presides over the Petroleum and Gas Association of Quebec, said in an interview on Tuesday.

But Ms. Ouellet sought to reassure the business community, which is preoccupied by the strong green presence within the PQ cabinet. “They shouldn’t worry. I worked for 10 years with Quebec’s industrial sector. … When the rules will be clear, the business climate will be more favourable to investors.”

Faced with fierce public opposition, former premier Jean Charest imposed a partial moratorium on gas exploration in March of 2011, so that a strategic environmental study could be done to evaluate the risks of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking,” which uses chemicals and water injected below ground to free natural gas from rock formations. Many Quebeckers fear that these techniques may contaminate ground water with chemical pollutants. This study is not to be completed until 2014. Other areas such as New York and France have also enacted bans to allow for fracking studies.

But the composition of the committee, which had no green member to begin with, stirred controversy. Hence Ms. Ouellet’s decision to order another study by the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (BAPE), an independent agency that inquires on any industrial activity that may affect the environment or the health of Quebeckers.

For the rest of this article, please go to the Globe and Mail website: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/quebec-gas-in-peril-as-pq-signals-ban/article4557380/