History of Quebec - 1970-2000

1970-2000

Traditional values continued to be put into question, in particular at the moral and religious level. Every form of authority was questioned, and demonstrations by students and workers' unions were frequent. A noticeable, growing confidence was evident in Quebec, supported by economic and social successes. After a period of rapid change, Quebec paused to search for its path.

A period of fast economic growth was ending. Several factors contributed to the stagnation and even the reduction, in many cases, of the buying power of Quebecois:

• the gas price shocks of 1973-1974 and of 1979 generated price inflation and high interest rates;
• economic growth shrank;
• taxes increased to pay for government programs put in place during the period 1960-1975;
• governments, stuggling with spending and growing deficits, disengaged itself from some services that citizens now had to pay for out of their own pocket;
• globalization of the economy put downward pressure on salaries.

Quebec's Premier Robert Bourassa unveiled plans for the James Bay Project in 1971, which expanded the capacity of Hydro-Québec by creating one of the largest hydro-electric projects in the world and eventually created a new understanding of the relationship between Quebec and the Cree Nation. Tensions with indigenous groups were to reemerge in the 1990s. In 1990, the Oka Crisis Standoffs in Kanesatake and Kahnawake over building of a golf course in a sacred religious area and cemetery in Oka led to the death of a police officer and better attempts to treat aboriginal issues.