RE:RE:RE:RE:really ! Here is the real reason why, it's all about milking free equalization money from other provines. It is not about environment or indigenous. If quebec brings in new revenue from natural resouce development, then quebec is no longer an have not province. It is why quebec can have a budget surplus from free money taken from the western provinces.
Equalization payments are a hot-button item in Alberta and Saskatchewan, who consistently transfer funds to "have not" provinces, such as Quebec and the Maritimes. The formula takes into account taxes collected by the province and 50% of natural resource revenues, as measured per capita. Provinces above the national average pay into the fund, while those below average collect payments.
The province of Quebec has received the lion's share of the country's equalization payments, about 50% since the program began in 1957. The province received $10 billion this year, which the government put towards balancing its budget. Quebec has received almost $300 billion in equalization payments since 1957 and has never been a net contributor to the fund. The province's significant revenues from the sale of hydroelectric power are excluded from the equalization formula.
The current "have not" provinces are Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and PEI, with payments extending into the 2016/17 fiscal year. Despite Alberta's serious oil shock, payments are calculated on a 3 year rolling average, meaning the province will not qualify for several more years, assuming conditions do not improve. The last time Alberta qualified for equalization funds was 1963.
In 1982, former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau amended the constitution to include equalization payments for "have not" provinces, making the program very difficult to undo.
Quebec's $300 billion in equalization payments touches nerve in pipeline wars | Oil Sands Magazine
MigraineCall wrote: I wonder if Alberta could introduce legislation to sanction Quebec from using fossil fuels.
https://www.theenergymix.com/2022/04/13/quebec-becomes-worlds-first-jurisdiction-to-ban-oil-and-gas-exploration/
Other bad consequences of the equalizaton payment
- Inflating the public sector: Equalization has allowed recipient jurisdictions to create disproportionately larger public sectors because someone else is paying the bill. Manitoba’s public sector, for instance, employs 103 people per 1,000 residents, compared to a Canadian average of 84.
- Politicizing spending. The external funding from equalization has allowed local politicians to build up vote-buying infrastructure with little political cost, by disconnecting taxation from benefit. Quebec’s $7-a-day daycare, and university tuition at less than half the Canadian average, would be unworkable without $7.4-billion in annual equalization subsidies from the rest of Canada.
- Incentives for higher taxes. A path-breaking study by the Atlantic Institute for Market Studies showed that equalization rewards recipient provinces for imposing high and damaging tax rates, which deter private-sector investment and job creation. Manitoba, the only have-not province in Western Canada, has the highest income taxes in the region, and also has the lowest rate of private-sector investment.
- Artificially inexpensive hydro power. By excluding the true value of renewable hydro energy revenues from the calculation of revenue capacity, the equalization formula rewards Manitoba and Quebec for charging artificially low domestic electricity prices. Below-market prices, in turn, encourage consumers to use more resources that otherwise would be conserved in response to accurate price signals.
Most Canadians may find it surprising that equalization encourages Quebec and Manitoba to waste renewable energy — so let’s walk through the logic.
But a quirk in the equalization formula excludes the true value of hydro electric energy produced by Manitoba and Quebec, which sell their hydropower in local markets for below-market prices without penalty
Artificially cheap hydro power: your equalization dollars at work | National Post
In summary:
autofocus111 wrote: Quebec had a chance to develop an LNG export facility that would have sourced natgas from western Canada, but unfortunately it got shot down by the provincial and federal governments. Premier Legualt was actually for it but recognized that the opposition to it by indigenous groups and enviromentalists (as well as some locals) was going to make it virtually impossible to succeed. it's possible (although unlikely) that the Ukraine-Russia conflict may lead to a revivial of the project.
But Quebec did finally get the electricity export project to NY approved atter years of struggles, and that's for some damm clean energy!
Fact is anything energy-related is a tough slog, be it in Quebec or anywhere else in Canada. Let's see just how quickly nuclear SMRs get approved and built with NIMBY out in force. I'm guessing it'll be 2040 before a single reactor is running, if ever at all.
>>>Promoters of a stalled project to build a C$9 billion ($7.2 billion) terminal to export liquefied natural gas from Quebec in Canada are seeking to revive the plan by garnering support from Europe, which is scrambling to find alternatives to Russian supplies. GNL Quebec Inc’s Energie Saguenay project was rejected by both the federal and provincial authorities in recent months on environmental grounds. The company has since been contacted by numerous stakeholders inside Canada and Europe requesting help to solve the continent’s energy-security challenges, GNL Quebec said in an emailed response to Bloomberg questions.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-04-08/quebec-lng-backers-seek-eu-boost-to-revive-rejected-project
>>>Hydro-Qubec's new power delivery project to New York State has reached a key milestone, with construction of the line on the U.S. side set to begin this summer, the utility said. Hydro-Qubec reported the New York Public Utilities Commission's approval Thursday of the contract between the Quebec-based utility and the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The commissioners voted 5-2 to approve the contract, in what was "the final step before work begins in the United States," Hydro-Qubec said.
https://montreal.ctvnews.ca/new-york-state-approves-power-delivery-project-with-hydro-quebec-1.5863131