Globe & Mail: The fight to resurrect Quebec’s shale gas industry
Sainte-Françoise-de-Lotbinière became a model for all Quebec municipalities 18 years ago when it decided to save its church from financial ruin by tearing the pews out and allowing the building to be used for community as well as religious purposes.
Now, the mayor of the farming village is attempting a different kind of resurrection: Salvaging support for what’s left of Quebec’s shale gas industry.
“I think we have to push forward” with developing the resource, said Mario Lyonnais, who is also prefect of the larger Bécancour regional county government. “Moving fast isn’t good. But not moving at all isn’t good either.”
It’s been nearly five years since oil and gas companies such as Talisman Energy Inc. did exploratory drilling work in Quebec in a bid to confirm its promising shale gas deposits. That work was stopped amid a public outcry. Today, while environmentalists and other citizens push for the province to enact a permanent ban on the shale industry and the hydraulic fracturing techniques it uses, a defiant minority, including Mr. Lyonnais, wants Quebec to move ahead again with development.