The Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour, attacked the Innus of Nutashkuan on Wednesday, whom he accuses of undermining government actions to protect woodland caribou.
“We have people who are working to try to improve preservation and on the other hand, the other day I had an Aboriginal community, in the east of the province, which went to destroy no less than 10% of a herd where there were approximately 500 woodland caribou,” he said on his arrival at the National Assembly.
Mr. Dufour said he estimates that there are 5,250 woodland caribou left in Quebec.
In his statement, he referred to an investigation that was opened into the hunting, during the winter, of 50 woodland caribou on the North Shore. According to The Journal of Montreal, the animals were slaughtered by the Innus of Nutashkuan. The community leader, Réal Tettaut, assured in an interview with Plaisir 94.1 radio in Sept-Îles that the Innu had “been careful” not to go “to places in Nitassinan [territoire ancestral] where there are fewer caribou.
However, in the opinion of Minister Dufour, the actions of these hunters thwart those put in place by his government.
“What we did on our side, with the small isolated herds, we decided to make enclosures to protect these animals. […] And on the other hand, if you have a community that goes away, under the pretext of its benevolence, to kill caribou, in a herd that is threatened and vulnerable,” he said. “I don’t think they are helping the population either. »
Pierre Dufour also confirmed that he will send a letter to Ottawa on Thursday afternoon detailing the actions his department has taken to protect woodland caribou.
The federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, recently expressed his intention to get involved in the protection of woodland caribou. The federal elected official summoned Minister Dufour to send him the list of “concrete measures” for the protection of the species that he has put in place.
The federal government then wants to assess whether Quebec is doing enough to avoid the decline and disappearance of the species, whose habitat is increasingly disturbed, mainly due to the repercussions of the forestry industry.
Further details will follow.