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MONTREAL – They are at the centre of Quebec’s biggest oil and gas news in years.

But on Friday, a snowstorm battered the residents of Port Menier on Anticosti Island, forcing people inside and closing the island’s only post office and commercial center.

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What would have normally been some lively face-to-face chatter about Premier Pauline Marois’s announcement the day before – that her government is pushing ahead with oil exploration and becoming a strategic equity partner for private-sector oil companies active on their island – happened instead in the privacy of people’s living rooms or over the phone. Not that it would have likely changed anyone’s opinion anyway.

The 230 people who live on wind-swept Anticosti were already expecting early-stage drill crews to show up at their wharf this summer. Some have already sent applications to Pétrolia Inc.’s local office to get hired as help.