The map of the fires taken an hour ago and the map of their 2025 mining project are just a simple coincidence, a user says in a Facebook post.
The publication includes two maps: one purporting to show the wildfires currently raging in Quebec, and another titled “Quebec’s Key Minerals of the Future: Projects and Mines.”
The post has been shared at least thousands of times on Facebook, where there are dozens of copies. The cards also found their way onto Twitter and TikTok, where several videos garnered over 100,000 total views.
Enlarge picture (New window)Screenshot of the circulating post.
Photo: Screenshot – Facebook
The map at left is a screenshot of a map from Natural Resources Canada’s Canadian Wildland Fire Information System published June 5 on the Montreal newspaper Le Devoir (New Window) website. This map showed the situation on the ground at that time.
The map at right is from the Quebec government website (New window). Despite the wording, the map does not show the location of proposed mining projects in Quebec, but rather shows deposits of mineral resources within the province.
A map showing the actual locations(New Window)of approximately thirty mining projects in Quebec can be found on the website of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests.
If we compare this last map with a map showing the current status of forest fires on the SOPFEU website (New Window), we see that there is no connection between these and the locations of mining projects.
The fires also seem to be occurring primarily in regions where no mining project is planned. For example, in the Rouyn-Noranda region there are no active forest fires, although a third of the mining projects are planned there.
You can view the difference between the two maps using the interactive tool below.
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