They actually do mate. It's called the Nord du Quebec plan. It was originally pitched for C$80 million over 25 years from starting back around 2011 ....May I believe which was to fund various Infrastructure north of the 49th Parallel which accounts for the Frotet Evans Greenstone Belt region as well as Moblan , Troilus etc...... Right up to James and Hudson Bay's.
Much like NAIF , which was originally only A$5 billion , it was a bit of a flop due to planning and land title agreements crossovers with First Nations development plans and visions. So it was re-hashed under the guise and format of the ' Grand Alliance '
So this ' revised plan ' was spearheaded by the Cree Nation of Eeuou Istchee in October 2020 which was to see a 30 year plan introduced with an infrastructure agreement of C$4.7 billion invested specifically in railway , road , power and port facilities in the more remote regions of their territory.
Apart from the obvious jobs creation under the plan , it was designed to try and unlock more of the wealth of the region natural resources since this territory represents around one third of the Quebec land mass.
They actually conducted some studies of course which I'd previously posted about this whole issue which were in part set back by the COVID-19 Pandemic with the first phase feasibility studies completion set for early 2021.
One of the main issues which had been long discussed was that previous infrastructure developments didn't seem logical since the current roads networks had been built for Hydro Electric developments - ie by felled grid style roads and not for the surrounding communities and also didn't cater well for the Miners and exploration companies.
In fact they even mention Moblan in some of the articles from their discussions and noted that most of these more advanced projects like Moblan , the Rose project , James Bay , Osisko's windfall gold project , Stornoway Diamond as well as Blackrock's vanadium titanium mine .....would at the time , if they were all up and running would require a massive total of 180 30 tonne trucks traversing these underdone roads EVERY SINGLE DAY . And this would be on top of the already heavily used traffic of the local community populations.
So they decided on THREE phases to their revised infrastructure needs with the FIRST covering years 1 through 5 which would see the rail infrastructure near Lebel-sur-Quevillon to Chapais rebuilt and NEW connecting rail to the James Bay corridor from Matagami right through to kilometre 257 of the James Bay Highway which is directly between the communities of Waskaganish on James Bay and eastward to Nemaska. Apparently phase 1 would also include road and electrification upgrades to help both communities and future mining projects..
Phase 2 would carry through years 6 through 15 and would involve a railway extension to kilometre 544 ( so another 287 kilometres ) of the James Bay Highway with a NEW winter road from Radisson to the most north community of Whapmagoostui which is on Hundson Bay.
Then phase 3 was planned as starting in year 16 with a railway extension right up to Whapmagoostui which would also incorporate the development of a FULL port community at that location.
I note the feasibility studies alone had original funds committed of $15 million each from Cree Nation governing body and the Province.
It was also noted that it costs folks living in the Eeyou Itschee region 30% more to build a house or structure there than anywhere else in Quebec and that one of their ( The First Nations leaders ) wanted was for the planned infrastructure to ' level ' the playing field on these mainly added transportation costs so as to attract more mining company project interest by reducing their know risks.
So it was said that they " We do not want for mining companies to come to our territory and lose - we want them to succeed "
So yeah a lot of this was covered as I said back when Moblan was aquired in 2021 in a post I did which highlighted the relative comparisons of those Miners who were positioned NORTH or Moblan who would potentially have to wait for Phase 2 planned development projects commencing in years 6.
Now I'm not so sure any of Phase 1. apart from the feasibility studies has even commenced as yet.
(20min delay)