In 1978, the Canadian province of Quebec passed the Environmental Quality Act, establishing the Bureau d’audiences publiques sur l’environnement (Bureau of Public Hearings on the Environment). The Bureau’s core mission is to consult citizens on the environmental, social, and economic impact of proposed policies in order to advise Quebec’s environmental ministry. Since 1990, the Bureau has held public hearings on a wide variety of topics, including on the question of shale gas exploitation. In the mid-2000s, geologists discovered substantial hydrocarbon reserves in the shale deposits of Quebec’s Saint Lawrence Lowlands. In 2010, the Environment Ministry of Quebec asked the Bureau to hold a public consultation on the potential impacts of continuing to allow the use of hydrofracturing, the only economical technique for accessing the Province’s shale gas reserves. One year later, the Bureau reported that it was unable to fully complete its consultation because “for certain fundamental [scientific] questions, the answers are either incomplete or non-existent.” In response, the Quebec government imposed a moratorium on drilling in June 2011. The continuance of the ban was contingent on the undertaking of an environmental impact study, which informed the Bureau’s second series of public consultations in 2013. Quebec citizens expressed concern in the Bureau’s consultation over the dangers of hydrofracturing and, largely on the basis of the Bureau’s 2014 final report, the Quebec Government decided to permanently ban the practice, effectively stopping the exploitation of shale gas in the Province.