The recreational tourism community of Haute-Gaspésie is mobilizing to press the government to submit its strategy for the protection of forest and mountain caribou, which has been overdue since 2019. Uncertainty is causing business opportunities to be lost, deplore entrepreneurs from the region.
The strategy must in particular delimit the territories for preserving caribou habitats and determine the areas where forestry activities will be supervised. Not knowing which sectors will be accessible to the development of the tourist and recreational offer, entrepreneurs say they are abandoning development projects.
Antoine Blier, general manager of Coop RAC, a company which notably offers off-piste skiing services in the Chic-Chocs, is at the origin of a mobilization campaign to denounce “the government’s inaction” and the postponement of the submission of the strategy. “For five years, development projects in the caribou range have all been on ice. We don’t know where we’re going. »
Mr. Blier plans to voice his grievances at a meeting of the municipal council of the MRC de la Haute-Gaspésie on March 13. At the time these lines were written, nearly 70 people working in the recreational tourism sector — skiing, cycling, accommodation, catering, etc. — had signed a document which sets out their difficulties and their requests.
“Our demands are really clear,” says Antoine Blier. Ultimately, what we need for the industry to survive is to have access to more territory and to have access to territory at altitude. » According to him, restricting the skiable territory to areas outside the caribou distribution zone would limit activities in the alpine sector. However, during winters with little snow, skiing is difficult, if not impossible, at low altitude.
He also advocates for “dynamic land management”, a practice which consists of allowing access to the mountains in the absence of caribou and prohibiting it in their presence. That said, “for this measure to work,” explains Mr. Blier, “we need to increase the mountain basin to ensure that, when caribou are present, we can have alternative solutions.”
Optimistic that “it will work out”
Dynamic management of the territory is a practice that must be encouraged, also believes François Roy, who founded an off-piste ski company in Gaspésie more than 20 years ago. Expanding the practice of the outdoors in certain areas, when caribou are not present, would benefit the entire region, he says, specifying that he is speaking in his personal name.
Due to delays in publishing the strategy, “we cannot plan more than a year in advance,” he maintains. Not knowing if he will still have the necessary permits for his practice in a few years, he says he avoids making significant investments. “It’s as if human, social and recreational tourism interest comes second. »
Mr. Roy, however, welcomes Antoine Blier’s initiative, which aims to raise awareness among elected officials, both in the region and in Quebec, of the consequences of delays in adopting the caribou protection strategy. “I’ve never been so hopeful that this would come to fruition,” he said.
A file that drags on
In 2019, the Legault government postponed the development of its strategy until 2022. In August 2022, the Independent Commission on Forest and Mountain Caribou released a report in which it recommended studying the effects of recreational tourism activities to limit the disturbances associated with this sector, “while recognizing its social, cultural and economic value “.
The Commission also recommended “to proceed as quickly as possible with the development and implementation of a strategy for the protection and recovery of woodland caribou.” At the end of 2023, the office of the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, indicated that the strategy would be presented “soon”, in 2024.
The woodland caribou is present north of the St. Lawrence River. In Gaspésie, we find the mountain caribou, a species designated as “threatened” since 2009 in Quebec. The population would number less than forty individuals, according to October 2021 data from the Quebec government.