The Parti Quebecois government won a partial victory Friday when opposition parties agreed in principle to move forward on its long-sought mining reform legislation, known as Bill 70.

Natural Resources Minister Martine Ouellet had ideally wanted to get the legislation passed in the fall session, which ended Friday.

Nevertheless on Friday morning members of all three opposition parties agreed to vote in principle to support the bill, which is the PQ’s second attempt to reform the Mining Act, which followed two failed Liberal attempts during their years in power.

Opposition parties blocked the PQ’s first attempt to pass new mining legislation, then known as Bill 43, last October.

House Leader Stéphane Bédard said that the fall session could conceivably be extended into next week to allow for the passage of the legislation. On Saturday, it was confirmed that the National Assembly would meet at 9 a.m. Monday.

Liberal leader Philippe Couillard appeared satisfied with the proposed new legislation and expressed a willingness to work on the bill next week.

CAQ MNA François Bonnardel also said that the bill looks satisfactory to his party.

The National Assembly is not slated to sit again until February but several MNAs expect to be called to week on the legislation next week in an attempt to draft a version to be studied by a parliamentary commission.

The CAQ showed signs of openness to rapid adoption. Unlike the Liberals, they were involved in discussions about the documents prior to its filing.

Unanimous consent of the house would be required to fast track adoption of the bill, a process that Quebec Solidaire MNA Amir Khadir said that he would not object to, even though he noted that he didn’t consider this version to be perfect.

Khadir said, however, that he seeks a moral commitment of the government to amend the mining companies’ expropriation powers, to reform the Office of Public Hearings on the Environment (BAPE) and increase ore processing in Quebec.
 

With a file from CTV Montreal