The “crossroads regions” of mid-northern Quebec as intercultural nordicity laboratories
Contrary to what is implied in the Plan Nord, the boundary between northern Quebec and the Laurentian region or southern Quebec is not a continuous and fixed line. Rather, the result of a set of interrelated physical and human criteria, this frontier is more a function of the dynamic transition zone than of any fixed boundary. A number of Quebec regions that are commonly known as “peripheral regions” or “resource regions” are located, at least in part, within this zone. In our opinion, these are “crossroads regions” which serve as a concrete link between the North and the Laurentian Valley and which allow for a better understanding of the position of the North within Quebec as a whole and thereby for a redefinition of the nordicity (or nordic characteristic) of the province. The main objective of this article is to determine the validity of this hypothesis. Given that the Indigenous presence is greater in these regions than in southern Quebec, our presentation focuses on Indigenous–allochthonous relations. Based on semi-structured interviews with non-Indigenous regional actors—surveys aimed at assessing the place of Indigenous peoples in development and partnership strategies in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean and Abitibi-Témiscamingue—we establish a critical overview of inter-ethnic relations in these two regions. Using this overview, we then engage in a more global reflection on the North and its development with the aim of identifying the potential factors—both positive and negative—that are driving the growing interest which the Laurentian region has for the North, in particular in the context of the Plan Nord.