Commentary: What do Quebecers think about mining and the environment?

Before gaining power in Quebec halfway through the year, the Parti Québécois was critical of Plan Nord, the Charest government’s ambitious 25-year, $80-billion blueprint for developing natural resources north of the 49th parallel. Now that the PQ is in government, it has been clear that it plans to put its own stamp on Plan Nord — but so far, specifics have been scarce.

Uncertainty about how Quebec’s new government will reshape the plan has created marketplace uncertainty, sparked a debate about the future of mining in Quebec and left public affairs teams scratching their heads about the best strategies for moving projects forward.

While the industry waits for greater clarity from government, it’s worth asking: What does the public think? I was recently invited to shed light on this question at a conference on Global Mining Risks sponsored by the Fraser Institute and CRU.

Since broad-strokes political dynamics had already been examined, and given the apparent ties between the PQ and the Quebec green movement, my team rounded out the picture by focusing on public attitudes about the environmental issues associated with northern resource development.

We presented four main insights derived from our own survey research:

• Quebecers are skeptical about the mining industry’s commitment to environmental protection.

• Negative perceptions of fracking are rubbing off on the mining industry.

• Environmental issues are a big deal in Quebec. If Quebecers and British Columbians held a tree-hugging contest, it would be a toss-up as to who would win.

• Quebec’s passion for the environment is long-standing, value-based and unlikely to shift.

We began our process with a survey of 2,000 Canadians that would enable us to determine whether Quebecers stood out compared to those in other provinces on the environmental issues we were probing. (They do.) We asked two related questions: How acceptable is it for various kinds of natural resource industries to cause environmental damage? And how committed are each of these industries to mitigating the environmental damage caused by their operations? 

Quebecers are generally in-line with other Canadians in the extent to which they view environmental damage as an acceptable trade-off for the benefits provided by various resource industries. 

Where Quebecers stand out is in their skepticism about the commitment of some industries — notably mining, oil and gas — to mitigating the damage they cause. (Notably, Quebecers register stronger faith than other Canadians in electricity producers’ environmental responsibility.) 

The main driver of Quebecers’ negative impressions of the mining industry seems to be concern about soil contamination. Forty-five percent of Quebecers name this as their top worry about mining.

Fracking taints mining

Quebecers appear to believe that fracking — the process used by the oil and gas industry to release tight oil and gas from shale deposits — is bad for the environment.

This is not a surprise, given that Quebec has instituted a moratorium on fracking, and the attendant media coverage has featured considerable discussion of the dangers fracking critics warn about (notably soil and water contamination). Indeed, when Quebecers were asked about the most important environmental issue facing their province, fracking tied for second with water pollution — and was only 3% behind pollution in general (the top concern). 

What does all this fracking talk have to do with public attitudes about mining? Plenty — because the public does not draw a distinction between fracking and mining. Fracking involves drilling and breaking the ground to extract a resource. To the average person, this activity sounds a lot like mining. It makes sense, then, that some of the negativity surrounding fracking has rubbed off on mining. This may strike mining firms as unfair, but they are not alone: this kind of transference is something researchers often see as we test attitudes about corporate and public affairs. In any case, it would be silly for mining firms to try improving their image by shifting public attitudes about an extraction activity in which they do not participate.

Environmental anxiety

If mining firms are interested in bringing a sense of stability to the Quebec marketplace and predictability to the fate of Plan Nord, more fruitful than a focus on fracking would be an effort to tackle the deeper and longer-standing public concerns in Quebec about resource industries and environmental degradation.

We have been studying Canadian views on environmental issues for decades. Throughout this time, the environment has been of central concern for Quebecers. For instance, when asked about the most important issue facing Canada, Quebecers are more likely than other Canadians, on average, to name the environment — and this difference has existed for as long as we’ve asked the question.

Notably, for Quebecers, environmental problems are not abstractions that only affect polar bears or migratory birds: Quebecers are, on average, more likely than other Canadians to believe environmental problems affect their own health. In Quebec, the environment is not “out there” — it’s personal.

When we look beyond opinion poll tracking and examine the deeply held values of Quebecers, we see further evidence that the mining industry faces an uphill battle in the province.

For example, Quebec ranks second only to B.C. when it comes to the strength of its belief in the “primacy of environmental protection” — a value that reflects the conviction that environmental concerns should trump economic ones. 

And Quebec ranks first among provinces when it comes to “ecological alarmism,” a measure of the belief that today’s environmental problems are leading the planet toward catastrophe, and that industry is destroying the planet through a total disregard for the environment.

Cyniques

It is not only the mining industry that faces tough headwinds in Quebec. Quebec is the most cynical province in Canada: Quebecers are more likely than other Canadians to distrust business and political leaders, and to believe that leaders are mainly self-interested, and not genuinely concerned with the public good.

When it comes to addressing the environmental piece of the puzzle in Quebec, the first step for the mining industry is to understand they’re playing a long game. Sure, some things are out of the industry’s control. But if played correctly — if the industry addresses the fundamental wants and needs of the average Quebecer — it can enjoy the same status as the hydroelectric industry, and the trappings that come with it.

— Darren Karasiuk is vice-president of corporate and public affairs, and the natural resources practice lead at Environics Research Group. His practice combines corporate and public affairs offerings, including public opinion research, communications, reputation management, government relations, social media and issues management to influence public policy, build a strong reputation and find common ground with stakeholders, government and the public. Follow him on Twitter at @dkarasiuk.