Premier Charest unveils plan to develop Quebec's North
LÉVIS – Premier Jean Charest announced Monday that his long-awaited Plan Nord, to open northern Quebec to economic and social development, will mean private and public investments totalling $80 billion over 25 years.
“The Plan Nord will be for the coming decades what the Manicouagan and James Bay developments were in the 1960s and '70s,” Charest said.
Investments in energy development, mining, forestry, transportation and tourism in the 1.2 million square kilometre region – twice the size of France – arev expected to create 20,000 jobs a year, on average, in the region, generating economic growth of $162 billion, tax revenues of $14 billion and mining royalties of $1.4 billion in five years, he said.
Only 120,000 people live in that vast territory, including 10,000 Inuit, 16,000 Crees, 9,300 of Quebec’s 16,000 Innu and 1,000 Naskapi in 31 communities, as well non-aboriginals in 32 communities.
Quebec is breaking the 25-year plan into five-year chunks, with $2.1 billion in public money budgeted for the first phase, 2011 to 2016
Read more: http://www.montrealgazette.com/news/Premier+Charest+unveils+plan+develop+Quebec+North/4747772/story.html#ixzz1LsxmC8vh
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