Quebec must speed permits, cut overlap between federal and provincial reviews and rebuild public trust if it wants to keep mining investment flowing, Quebec Mining Association president and CEO Emmanuelle Toussaint said.
The province’s problem is no longer geology so much as certainty. Quebec spent much of the past decade in the Fraser Institute’s global mining top 10 before dropping to 22nd last year and staying there this year.
Toussaint, a seasoned C-suite executive and named as one of the Top 100 Most Powerful Women in Canada, blamed slow authorizations, thin staffing inside ministries, gaps in roads, rail and ports, and training that still does not fully match industry needs.
“It’s not only about changing the regulation, it’s about making sure that we have the right processes, that we can move forward, that the different administrators talk together,” Toussaint told The Northern Miner’s Western Editor, Henry Lazenby, last week at the CIM Connect event in Vancouver. “So, if you’re a promoter, then you know exactly that your file or your case will move forward in a very efficient way.”
Quebec wants a bigger role in supplying the metals needed for electrification, AI data centres and national security. But that ambition will be harder to meet if projects keep stalling in the permit queue and if miners fail to convince the public the industry has changed, Toussaint said.
Watch the full interview below:
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