Quebec's New Mining Tax Regime: A Comparative Analysis

Notice to reader: All terms (excluding defined terms) in quotation marks in this article have the same meaning as in the Mining Tax Act.

Over the last few months, mining companies and investors have been playing it safe in Quebec. Against the backdrop of a decline in metal prices this past year, mining investment has come to a standstill in Quebec. No business wants to be placed in a situation where mining taxes have become an intrinsic production cost that could jeopardize the profitability of a project. On May 6, 2013, the Parti Québécois minority government (the Government) implicitly recognized that the so-called ad valorem regime it had initially proposed would have been, as the mining industry anticipated, a blow to the mining sector, a major economic force for Quebec development (see our March 2013 Blakes Bulletin: Will Fiscal Uncertainty Undermine Investment and Stifle Wealth Creation?).