Quebec's New Petroleum Resources Act

In the early hours of Saturday, December 10, 2016, a bleary-eyed Quebec National Assembly voted 62 to 38 to adopt Bill 106, An Act to implement the 2030 Energy Policy and to amend various legislative provisions. The Minister of Natural Resources and Wildlife had introduced the bill on June 7, 2016 and the Government had very much wanted it to be passed by the end of the year. Energy policy has been a subject of much debate in Quebec for the better part of a decade and after numerous policy papers, expert panels, public consultations and other tergiversations, the Government was eager to remove a potential irritant from the political scene. The next Quebec election is scheduled for October 2018 and Premier Couillard's Liberals want the final years of their mandate to have a happier tone than the first three, when the focus was the cleanup of Quebec's public finances, replete with painful service and budget cuts. With Quebec having largely righted its financial affairs –