Jean Charest's first announcement since unveiling his Northern Plan for Quebec's arctic was not linked to mining or Hydro-Electric development, but rather conservation.
Charest announced the creation of a massive provincial park Tuesday as the initial step in the $80 billion, 25-year development plan that looks to finally create the infrastructure necessary to extract the valuable natural resources found in Quebec's arctic.
The park will be near the Cree community of Oujé-Bougoumou in the James Bay region of northern Quebec, which is where Charest made the announcement alongside Cree Grand Chief Dr. Matthew Coon Come.
"And it will be a park that will be run by the Cree Nation," Charest announced to applause.
The Assinica National Park Reserve protects 3,193 square kilometres of wildnerness, making it the second largest provincial park in Quebec.
The park proponents see it as a potential tourism gold mine, and a producer of local jobs.
"The Cree Nation love their area," Coon Come said. "We do not want our children to live down south."
Except, as CTV Montreal's Kai Nagata learned, that is exactly where a good number of the community's youth want to be heading.
"Maybe Ontario or somewhere," said Valentina Bosum, who wants to be a dental hygienist. "Out of here, that's for sure."
The answer was the same for several other youth Nagata spoke to, with none of them expressing an interest in working in forestry, mining or Hydro-Quebec – all fields that should be booming under Charest's plan.
"I'm really against things like that," one student told Nagata. "I like keeping the land basically the way it looks right now."
Charest says that was the point of Tuesday's announcement, while Coon Come said it's possible to develop what sits outside the park in a respectful, holistic way.
"If you create jobs, then you'll have healthy communities, healthy people," he said.
Meanwhile, residents who have been duped in the past hope Charest's concern for conservation is sincere.
"There's been promises in the past," resident Margo Cooper said, "and I haven't seen so many promises being kept."
There will be other announcements in the North in the weeks to come, but already the premier's eye is turning to outside investors.
A trip to Europe is in the works, then over the summer break perhaps another trade mission to China.
After all, it's those emerging economies that will really determine if the larger plan for economic development in the North takes off.
Are you on Facebook? Check out some photos our Quebec City bureau chief Kai Nagata took while doing this report.
