Québec’s mining industry: A key driving force for economic development

By Josée méthot, President and CEo, Québec mining association

The historical rise in the price of gold, which reached over $2,000 USD per ounce in August, has compensated for some of the losses caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as strong prices for iron ore. With high-quality projects, experienced managers, and clear indications from the Québec government that it intends to reduce delays in the project authorization process, everything seems to be in place for more investment, allowing the mining industry to generate even more benefits for Québec.

Since 2016, the Québec Mining Association (QMA) has published a study of the economic benefits generated by the province’s mining industry. The results released in 2020 show, once again, the enormous contribution the industry makes to the mining regions, and also, significantly, to the major urban centres. This is a reminder that regions such as Montréal and Montérégie have far closer ties to the mining industry than at first appears.

The data used, although based on activities in 2018, is the most recent available and the most representative of the mining industry’s contribution to Québec’s socio-economic development.

Overall, mining companies spent almost $10 billion in Québec through extraction, exploration, and investment expenditure. The Abitibi-Témiscamingue region received the largest share, with $3.45 billion, followed by the Côte-Nord region with $2.16 billion, and Montréal with $1.17 billion.

All of this spending supported 48,006 jobs, including almost 17,000 direct jobs, 21,350 indirect jobs, and just over 9,700 induced jobs. It is important to mention that the average annual salary in the industry was almost $104,000, substantially higher than the average estimated Québec salary of $64,000.

Another finding in the study is that mining companies employ an increasing number of women. Between 2014 and 2018, the number of female employees increased by 501 (+36 per cent), from 1,398 to 1,899. They now hold 13 per cent of the direct jobs in the industry. The mining sector has also become more attractive to Aboriginal workers over the same period. Although these results are admirable, an ongoing effort must be made to attract more people from both groups, since they constitute an important part of the workforce that will be needed in the future.

Unsurprisingly, mining companies also support an extensive network of suppliers, which total more than 3,800, based in all regions but mainly in Abitibi-Témiscamingue (1,210), Montréal (686), and Montérégie (435).

The study also answers a frequently-raised question: how much money do governments receive from mineral resource development? It shows that over $1.3 billion was paid to the Québec government alone in 2018, without including corporate income tax, while the Canadian government received over $500 million.

Each time we publish the results from the survey of economic benefits generated by the mining industry in Québec, we cannot help but feel a sense of pride. We are proud, of course, to be making a significant contribution to Québec’s economic development—but we are also proud to see that the benefits are spread throughout Québec, rather than just in the mining regions, and also, significantly, to note that the mining industry contributes to the wellbeing of the population as a whole by paying over a billion dollars each year to the Québec government.

Thanks to the resilience of the mining industry’s workers and their ability to innovate, we have been able to return quickly to the level of activity that prevailed before the COVID-19 pandemic. However, it will be interesting to see the impact of the crisis, in particular on employment and expenditure, when the next study of economic benefits is completed for 2020. u