Immature Quebec

The Quebec government has just published its proposed regulations on oil drilling. This 270-page document establishes the “strictest regulatory framework in North America,” according to Energy and Natural Resources Minister Pierre Arcand. These regulations, after consultation, will govern licences and operations for hydrocarbon exploration, production, storage and transport.

We can only applaud this desire for environmental standards that are robust, that are among the most advanced in the world, to govern the development of the oil and gas industry in Quebec.

Unfortunately, there is already an outcry among environmental groups and even from the Quebec Federation of Municipalities (FQM), whose president is criticizing “the total absence of social licence” for all oil and natural gas projects. If social licence meant unanimity, nothing would ever get done again.

Indeed, the protests are not so much directed at the details of the regulations as at the very idea of hydrocarbon production in Quebec.

There are several reasons why it is a sign of great immaturity to want to simply prevent the potential emergence of an oil and gas industry in Quebec. First of all, Quebecers consume over 200 million barrels of oil every year. Importing this oil from countries that often don’t have environmental standards as high as Quebec’s, (besides Prince Edward Island) that produces no oil or natural gas. The three provinces where this sector is the most developed, namely Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Newfoundland, are among those that had the greatest real median income growth between 2005 and 2015 (between 24 per cent and 36.5 per cent, versus 8.9 per cent in Quebec). Letting opportunities for wealth creation