Tory candidate seeks victory in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou

Jean-Maurice Matte, who is running for the Conservatives in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou, wants to see the gun registry abolished. “This program treats hunters like criminals,” he said. (PHOTO/ CPC)

A Conservative government will take an active role in helping to implement Quebec’s Plan Nord, says the party’s candidate in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou.

Conservative candidate Jean-Maurice Matte says the sprawling riding will move ahead over the next 10 years, with respect to its resource development, infrastructure and government-Aboriginal relations – and he hopes to play a role.

“The federal government plans to work with the Quebec government to realize its Plan Nord,” Matte told Nunatsiaq News in a phone interview. “It’s become a federal plan too – which can’t be accomplished with the [incumbent] Bloc Québecois.”

Matte, the long-time mayor of Senneterre, a community north of Val d’Or, ran and lost to incumbent MP Yvon Lévesque in the 2008 federal election.

Echoing the position of many of his opponents, Matte said development in northern Quebec must be on its residents’ terms – and it must benefit the region’s Aboriginal communities.

In Nunavik, that means building more housing to accommodate the growth expected there, Matte said.

“One of my objectives as MP is to create a federal-provincial agreement that will put in place 1,000 housing units in Nunavik over the next 10 years,” he said. “The provincial government is ready to go into a negotiated agreement and the federal government absolutely has to be there.”

Here is where Matte stands on a number of other issues:

• Firearms registry: the Conservative party continues to push to abolish the federal program that requires Canadians to register their arms. “This is an issue that is important to Aboriginal constituents, because the program is needless and expensive,” Matte said. “This program treats hunters – Aboriginal or not – like criminals.”

• Nutrition North: the Conservative government’s decision to delay the full implementation of the program was a direct response to the needs of people across the North. “We have 18 months to strengthen this program,” Matte said of the October 2012 deadline. “We have to make sure that warehouses are ready, that delivery is happening on time…to ensure that this responds to the needs of the people who rely on this program.”

• Climate change and resource development: the federal government’s recent support for developing a hydroelectric project in Labrador’s Lower Churchill river is one example of how the government can help combat climate change, by investing in sustainable energy and providing options for fossil fuels. “We’re lucky in northern Quebec because we’re on of the few places on Earth that produces a green form of energy, which is hydroelectricity,” he said.

• Partnerships: educational institutions such as the Université du Québec en Abitibi-Témiscamingue in Rouyn-Noranda should help in the development of the north, Matte said, to build a stronger relationship and common vision between the Abitibi region and northern regions such as Nunavik.

Matte may take a short tour of Nunavik next week after the riding candidates’ debate set for April 19 in Val d’Or.

That’s the same day on which prime minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to visit Val d’Or — Harper’s third visit to the region since 2008.

Before Harper’s first visit to Val d’Or, it had been 40 years since a Canadian prime minister set foot in the community, Matte said, although Nunatsiaq News covered a visit by then-PM Paul Martin in 2004 when he met with Makivik Corp. Pita Aatami and other Nunavik officials, in Val d’Or.

Recent voter surveys lead Matte to believe that the Conservatives can win the election in Abitibi-James Bay-Nunavik-Eeyou.

And he hopes his party will pick up a dozen more seats across Canada than in 2008.

“Ideally, this will be a majority government,” he said. “So we’re not looking at another election six months from now.”