Nathalie Normandeau, Quebec’s natural resources minister, and Christian Paradis, her federal counterpart, are to sign an agreement on offshore oil and gas resources that will give Quebec 100 per cent of revenues from the Old Harry site in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.
Marie-France Boulay, Normandeau’s press secretary, confirmed Thursday morning that the signing will occur in Paradis’s offices in Gatineau on Thursday afternoon.
The agreement also recognizes the 1964 underwater boundary between Quebec and Newfoundland/Labrador that Newfoundland initially accepted but has since repudiated, Boulay said.
Like offshore agreements with Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, the Quebec accord provides for joint Quebec-Ottawa management of the resource.
The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that offshore resources belong to the federal government but all three accords give the provinces 100 per cent of the benefits.
Source: The Montreal Gazette
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Source: The Montreal Gazzete, March 24, 2011; Image:Cnlopb