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WHAT HE SAID ABOUT …
Aid program for the forest industry
Quebec plans to set up a program in July to help the Quebec forest industry hard hit by the financial crisis.
The proposed aid should take the form of a temporary, “short-term” program, said Minister of Economy and Innovation Pierre Fitzgibbon. He is working on the file together with his colleague Pierre Dufour, Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.
Minister Fitzgibbon noted that he and his colleague had committed to reviewing “possible developments” in the forestry system the previous week, on the sidelines of an announcement in the Fortress plant in Thurso, in the Outaouais region.
«[Il n’y a] no specific promise, but it must be reviewed, because I think the industry has gone elsewhere and it is no longer where it was, ”he said.
GNL Québec and the feasibility study
In the GNL Québec file, Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon reiterated that his government remains “open” regarding the project, with a view to economic recovery, while Québec could contribute to carrying out the feasibility study.
Environmental assessments and social acceptability are, however, “two points that must be respected” before the government takes a position on participating in the financing of the feasibility study, as it stated in Le Devoir in May.
“As we speak, promoters are looking for money to do the feasibility study,” he said in an interview on Friday. We, what we said, is that we could – it’s conditional – be interested, but it takes other investors. Other people have to believe [à ce projet]. When the government is the only source of funds for a project, it is generally not good projects. ”
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