Québec Government Introduces Framework For Oil And Gas Exploration

In the early morning of December 10, 2016, the Québec legislature adopted the contentious Bill 106: An Act to implement the 2030 Energy Policy and to amend various legislative provisions. The main purpose of Bill 106 was to enact the Act respecting Transition énergétique Québec and the Petroleum Resources Act, as well as to amend existing legislation affected by the new provisions.

Faced with considerable political resistance, this Bill was the subject of considerable debate and of several notable parliamentary manoeuvres, the purpose of which was to limit or delay the implementation of the measures contained in the Petroleum Resources Act. The opposition parties considered that the proposed acts were bundled into a single bill to increase the viability of passing the Petroleum Resources Act. Accordingly, the official opposition introduced a motion to divide the bill into four separate bills, which would allow each bill to progress independently and would sever the P