Quebec plans $100-millon loan to troubled Nunavik mine – by Sarah Rogers (Nunatsiaq News – April 16, 2015)

http://www.nunatsiaqonline.ca/

The Quebec government is prepared to loan $100 million through a government-linked investment agency to Canadian Royalties and its parent company Jien Canada Mining Ltd., which owns and operates the Nunavik Nickel mine.

The news comes just days after Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard re-launched the government’s Plan Nord, which promised to invest billions into building the province’s economy north of the 49th parallel.

But opposition parties in the National Assembly had questions April 14 about the government’s decision to invest in the Nunavik mine, given the premier’s background. Couillard was named to Canadian Royalties’ board of directors in 2009, a year after he resigned as health minister under the Charest government.

Couillard also sat on the board alongside Dr. Arthur Porter, the disgraced former CEO of the McGill University Health Centre in Montreal, who faces fraud charges alleging his involvement with a multi-million dollar, kick-back scheme linked to the construction of a new hospital centre.

Opposition MNAs suggested Couillard’s connection to the mining company raises a conflict in the face of such a large government investment.

“As a former member of the company’s board of directors, did the premier have the prudence to withdraw from any cabinet discussion on the financing of Canadian Royalties?” Parti Québécois MNA Stéphane Bergeron said in an April 15 statement.

“Quebecers have a right to know whether the Premier took part in discussions or not,” he said.

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Premier’s former link to mining company raises criticism