Excerpted from an article by Anne Drost, Paulina Balabuch and Ozzy Gdalevitch in Blakes Business Class blog, March 7
On February 16, 2016, Quebec’s Energy and Natural Resource Minister Pierre Arcand tabled a green paper (referred to in French as the “Livre Vert”) at the National Assembly, outlining five guidelines regarding social acceptability as it relates to the use of public lands and the development of natural resource projects in Quebec (Green Paper). This Green Paper is the latest development in an initiative launched by the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources (MERN) in 2014 on social acceptability for natural resource projects in Quebec (referred to in French as “le chantier de l’acceptabilité sociale”).
The notion of social acceptability has been raised in a number of natural resource development projects that recently made headlines in Quebec. It is a similar concept to a social licence to operate, an expression more commonly used outside of Quebec. Despite being popular and often considered imperative for approval of certain projects, social acceptability remains a vague concept.
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Referring to a lack of consensus on the definition of social acceptability, the Green Paper provides the following definition: “Social acceptability is essentially the result of a consultation process through which the developer, elected officials, organizations, groups and citizens discuss together the conditions that will permit or not the realization of a project.” The Green Paper attempts to clarify the Quebec government’s approach to the concept of social acceptability, focusing on five guidelines for modernizing the government’s tools and practices in this regard. These five guidelines are:
• Make the MERN’s roles and responsibilities in the area of land use planning and land management better known
• Make the mechanisms for land planning and land use harmonization contained in public land use plans (PATPs) more transparent, participatory and up-to-date
• Establish predictable information and consultation processes at all project stages
• Promote the sharing of benefits from energy and mining development projects with host communities
• Enhance the MERN’s ability to analyze the impacts, economic benefits and repercussions of projects by taking social acceptability factors into account
The Green Paper provides details as to how these guidelines will translate into practice and sets out a number of actions the Quebec government intends to take.
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The Green Paper provides several guidelines. Under guideline 3, it emphasizes the need to begin a consultation process on key project issues, including concerns of the host communities, First Nations and the project sponsors as early as possible, at the project design stage. Under guideline 4, Benefits Sharing, the Green Paper proposes establishing workforce training programs adapted to the host community’s members. It also stresses the importance for companies to conclude agreements both with First Nations and local communities. Under guideline 5: Analyzing Projects’ Impacts, The MERN announced that an independent office of economic impact analysis for projects will be created.
Reprinted with permission. Visit www.blakesbusinessclass.com for the original article.