Editorial: Normandeau’s heart will go on

The onset of autumn can bring out a reflective mood in people.

In Quebec City, Deputy Premier and Minister of Natural Resources Nathalie Normandeau has suddenly decided to quit politics. The popular, stylish, 43-year-old (for our foreign readers: think Céline Dion as a provincial politician) had often been touted as next in line as leader of the ruling provincial Liberal Party.

“Today, I hope my personal life will start taking precedence over my professional life,” a smiling and relaxed Normandeau said in French at a news conference, with Premier Jean Charest at her side.

She started her public political life at 27 as the mayor of her small town in Quebec’s Gaspésie region, and devoted the last 13 years of her life to provincial politics, including the last eight as a heavyweight cabinet minister.

The last year has been a tough one for Normandeau’s resources file, with a flurry of crises, including protests over shale-gas exploitation, the closure of Shell Canada’s refinery in Montreal and a locking of horns with the federal government over control of offshore oil and gas. She visibly lost weight over the period, prompting some concern over her health.

Her high note on the mining side was the unveiling of the provincial government’s centrepiece Plan Nord in May 2011, which lays out and initially funds an ambitious, multi-billion-dollar government-industry partnership to build infrastructure to support further development of northern Quebec’s abundant but hard-to-reach natural resources.

At the personal level, Normandeau’s love life has been the subject of much gossip in the province, with her hands-across-the-aisle idylle with an opposition party member and her current dating of a former Montreal police chief, whose name pops up whenever the topic turns to a possible probe of provincial figures allegedly linked to corruption.

Naturally, there’s speculation that the ticking of her biological clock played a part in her decision, but publicly Normandeau, always single and childless, stated that she has no immediate career plans, and is only “seeking some rest, some stability and some serenity in my personal life.”

The Charest government, in power since 2003, has taken on a fin de régime air, with Normandeau being the sixth minister to resign since the last provincial election in December 2008. The vacancy of her Bonaventure riding in the Gaspésie leaves the Charest government with only 64 seats out of a possible 125, or just two seats away from minority government status.

Lynne Beauchamp has been named as the new deputy premier, and Clément Gignac is the new minister of natural resources, which includes responsibility for Plan Nord.

…

In B.C., the Northwest Transmission Line (NTL) project took another big step to becoming a reality with BC Hydro awarding the design-build contract for the NTL project to the team of Valard Construction and Burns & McDonnell, which will design and build the NTL transmission line, and undertake related procurement activities.

BC Hydro already hired consultants Golder Associates to provide environmental program management services for the NTL, including overseeing, tracking and reporting on compliance with the NTL’s environmental assessment certificate, and any environmental permits or approvals. Also, Hatch has been retained to provide construction program management services for the NTL project.

As mining folk on the West Coast are well aware, the NTL is critical to the economic development of a dozen or more large, isolated mineral deposits in the province’s mountainous northwest corner.

…

Cameco’s hostile takeover bid for Hathor Exploration and its Roughrider uranium deposit in Saskatchewan dragged on for another week, with Hathor stock rising to around the $4.15 mark, or 10.7% above Cameco’s low-ball $3.75 all-cash offer.

With Hathor president and CEO Mike Gunning and his team biting their tongues until they can come flat out and officially reject the offer, the situation is a little reminiscent of Barrick Gold’s hostile and ultimately failed takeover attempt of NovaGold Resources in 2006. At that time, Barrick managers were a little too chuffed with themselves after their successful hostile takeover of a rudderless Placer Dome, and launched their raid on NovaGold without fully understanding the personal attachment of the management to the company and the loyalty of the shareholders to the existing management. After wasting a year on NovaGold, Barrick returned with more enthusiasm to the friendly takeover model.