Public consultation on issues related to the exploration and exploitation of shale gas in the Utica shale lowlands of the St. Lawrence - Committee composition and availability of documentation

QUÉBEC, March 13, 2014 / CNW Telbec / - On January 30 , the Minister of Sustainable Development , Environment , Wildlife and Parks , Yves -François Blanchet, gave the BAPE on environmental mandate to investigate and hold a public hearing on the issues raised by the exploration and exploitation of shale gas in the Utica shale lowlands of the St. Lawrence to the future work of the Committee strategic Environmental assessment (SEA ) on the shale gas.

This inquiry will be chaired by Denis Bergeron, who will be assisted by commissioners Gisèle Grandbois and John Haemmerli . The mandate of the commission will begin on March 31. The Committee is currently working to determine the modalities of this public consultation . Once they are arrested, they will be disseminated through a press release and on the BAPE website.

The inquiry has a maximum period of eight months to complete its mandate. The BAPE report will be submitted to the Minister of Sustainable Development , Environment , Wildlife and Parks later than 28 November 2014 . Subsequently , the Minister has 60 days to make the report public.

WHERE TO SEE THE DOCUMENTATION ON FILE ?

Studies commissioned as part of the Strategic Environmental Assessment on shale gas and the synthesis of these studies report are available to the population centers in the following regional consultation :

Library Bécancour , 1295 Avenue Nicolas Perrot, Bécancour;
Library T -A.- Saint- Germain , 2720 Dessaules Street, Saint -Hyacinthe;
Library Wilfrid Laurier , 147, rue Saint- Denis , Laurier- Station.

The entire file is also available in print at the BAPE office in Québec version at 575 Saint -Amable Street, Suite 2.10 and Montreal , the Library of Legal Sciences of the University of Quebec at Montreal , Pavillon Hubert- Aquinas , 400 Sainte-Catherine Street East , as well as in the BAPE website at www.bape.gouv.qc.ca , under " current mandates ."

For more information , please contact Marie- Josée Harvey , Coordinator of the Secretariat of the Committee , or Julie Olivier , communications advisor , by calling 418 643-7447 or toll free at 1 800 463-4732 . You can also contact the Committee by email to the following address: gaz_de_schiste@bape.gouv.qc.ca .

WHAT THE BAPE ?

The Office of Public Hearings on the environment is a public and neutral body that reports to the Minister of Sustainable Development , Environment , Wildlife and Parks. Its mission is to inform government decision-making in the context of sustainable development , which includes ecological, social and economic aspects .

To achieve this mission , the BAPE inform investigation and public consultations on projects or issues related to environmental quality to it by the Minister . He subsequently produced investigative reports that are made public . BAPE is therefore a government advisory and not decision-making body .