Richard Desjardins and Henri Jacob, both at the head of Action boréale, are not going too far. In a new open letter, they observe that it takes the Quebec government ten weeks to grant a cutting permit to a forestry company. In contrast, it took ten years, they note, to create new protected forest areas. However, the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP) was able to make them disappear with the stroke of a pencil in less time than it takes to turn a spruce into matches.
Pierre Dufour, the minister in title, is described as beautiful incompetent by the Boreal Action, in less nice terms, it is true. That this minister, in particular, is thus singled out is undoubtedly exaggerated. This group dedicated to the defense of biodiversity, Action boréale, readily acknowledges this. After all, Minister Dufour, a former travel and tourism consultant, is no less qualified than many of his predecessors. Never having put one’s nose into a forest management plan before finding oneself catapulted into a decision-making position, that is what, with us, is more the rule than the exception. Desjardins and Jacob therefore barely caricature reality by writing that, in this ministry, in a way, “incompetence has become a criterion of selection”, that is to say the expression of a dynamic that goes beyond people.
The forest kingdom accounts for more than half of Quebec’s territory. These are 92% of this huge area, or about 835,000 km2, which constitute a collective good entrusted to the State. The equivalent of almost twice the surface of Sweden, where we do more with much less. Is it our settler mentality that enjoins us to continue to mistreat our natural forests while congratulating ourselves on them?
In 2019, Minister Dufour had repeated, even while being disavowed by scientists, that cutting down the Quebec forest even faster promised to “improve” carbon capture for an environmental purpose… In terms of pseudo-ecological statements, this minister of operetta competed in a way for the palm of the wacky with the real estate developers of the Royalmount shopping megacentre. They had argued that plastic plants, since they did not require water or maintenance, were more environmentally friendly…
Who can believe, asks Action boréale, that the MFFP intends to “protect the forest”? In fact, it appears destined first of all to secure the supply of powerful forestry companies, insofar as these agree not to stuff themselves much more than they are already allowed too much. Those who exaggerate, in the middle of the banquet offered to them, receive a little slap on the wrist, while waiting for their next authorization to swallow another corner of the country, thanks to a grant granted to help them.
One of the tentacles of the powerful forestry intermediary Rémabec, in which the wealthy Saputo family is now a 50% shareholder, has just been sentenced to a fine of $120,000. It has exceeded by 75% the atmospheric emission standards for a boiler it operates. This is the heaviest environmental fine imposed in recent years on a company of its kind. But not enough to straighten a turnover which is counted in the hundreds of millions.
The forest belongs to a sad tradition of exploitation. In the 19thand century, the giant oaks and the long white pines, summarily cut down, went almost entirely to England. The colonial power, both financially and politically, found its foundations in this exploitation which was able, gradually, to make children in other coteries. Sawmills, attached to engineered rivers, engulfed trees and spat out fish. They ended up producing the fine papers on which the shareholders saw their dividends printed.
In 2004, the Coulombe report concluded that our sparse forests were overexploited and decimated. Yet, the government’s “absolute reverence for the forest industry continues,” note Desjardins and Jacob. Yes, monoculture, accelerated exploitation and blind faith in the future continue to be prized.
After having taken a closer interest in recent years in the deficient management of the built heritage in Quebec, the Auditor General could also put his nose in what appears to be the sad result of decades of laissez-faire in matter of forest conservation. In 2017, the Auditor General already noted, in any case, that the Ministry does not even know if its silvicultural investments have produced the expected results. In the meantime, the biodiversity of our forests continues to be pulverized.
In the North, vast territories are irrigated by more and more logging roads. The wolves circulate there more beautiful. And woodland caribou are on the verge of disappearing for good. The seven caribou that remained in Abitibi, after endless procrastination, ended up being parked on the equivalent of a few football fields. Is it to protect them from the very wicked nature that they had to be locked up?
In the 1960s, wolf packs were poisoned with strychnine, allegedly to protect nature against their fangs. So much so that in southern Quebec, there are no more wolves. Nature is there, however, out of order more than ever. Who, of the wolves or of those who order their death, has the longest teeth? At the ministry of spruces and matches, we have for too long liked to play with fire, while taking ourselves for God. That’s enough, right?