Open letter to Pierre Dufour, Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.
In each of your public statements, you strongly insist on the conception that you have of your mandate: to maintain a “balance” between the development (exploitation) of natural resources, on the one hand, and their conservation, on the other. go.
Your mandate is not easy, because in the forest regions of Quebec, barely 10% of the territory is protected and the rest is devolved to dealers of natural resources. There is “rebalancing” work to be done, we agree with you.
The problem is that you are not fit to do so. Don’t take it too personally, because over time in your ministry, incompetence has become a selection criterion for the position you hold. A newcomer to the complex world of forestry, you are kept under influence by a close guard of around twenty unelected senior officials: the “bunker”. This powerful non-accountable small group, blindly won over to the wishes of the industry, encourages and exacerbates this imbalance and is resistant to any forest conservation initiative. It is he who dictates the official discourse to you, most of the time in the form of talk full of lies and approximations sprinkled with announcements that are harmful to the forest territory.
Thus, the bunker ordered you:
* to cancel 83 protected area projects in southern Quebec. They had, however, been democratically chosen by the populations of the regions, and this, after ten years of intense negotiations and compromises agreed to by all the stakeholders, including the forest industry and your own ministry. Balance ?
* to decree the artificialization of 25% of the Quebec forest, without consulting the population. We will then see endless spruce plantations — highly flammable — on our most productive territories, which will leave an anemic biodiversity on the ground. Balance ? This terrifying plan bears the name “Timber Production Intensification Area” (AIPL). To remember.
* to lower the age at which a forest is considered commercially mature, and therefore available for felling. Balance ? We can thus harvest this forest at a third of its maturity. An unacceptable waste… like announcing to his 25-year-old children that they are now old people…
* to enclose what remains of woodland caribou in enclosures to allow the industry to complete the devastation of their habitats. Your goal. The excuse? Protect them from the bad wolves who have lived together in the same forest for 1,000 years. Armed with a simple “small game” hunting license costing $21, a hunter can today kill all the wolves he encounters. Taking advantage of the same hunting expedition, he will be able to kill a female bear as early as May, when she takes care of her newborn cubs. That’s wildlife management!
You have accepted all of this.
However, between now and the end of your mandate—scheduled for next fall—Mr. Minister, you would still have a chance to change somewhat the distressing imbalance of your department, which disproportionately favors the exploitation of the forest detrimental to its preservation.
First of all, you could reveal the results of the silvicultural work carried out over the past forty years with our taxes. Even as the Auditor General of Quebec has called for this report, twice in 20 years. The last time (2017) was in these terms: “The MFFP does not know if the silvicultural investments of the last decades have given the expected results. This information is however fundamental to estimate if our forestry as it is practiced today – by harvesting more than what nature provides – remains the least bit sensible.
It takes ten weeks to grant a logging permit to a company, but ten years to create a protected area of the same size. Where is the balance? Of course, you would be free to issue logging permits, but on the condition that the territories concerned are subject to the same studies required for the creation of a protected area. We could then start talking about balance.
You could even undertake the work on your own territory of Abitibi, Mr. Minister, where the mining industry has taken possession of 40% of the land, preventing the cities — in the midst of the boreal immensity — from building new residential neighborhoods, and blocking the establishment of protected areas. In your own region, barely 1% of the territory of the Abitibi Regional County Municipality is protected. The rest is open to clearcutting. Balance ?
Your conception of balance revolts us, Minister. This false and perfectly inequitable “give and take” nickname is well reflected in its Abitibi variant that you are surely familiar with: “half and half”an ox and a rabbit!
Last thing, you promised us recently that you would be more “transparent” in your duties. The objective can easily be achieved this year if your voters make you disappear. Action boréale will ensure that the caribou will exercise their right to vote, as they exercised against your predecessor, Luc Blanchette. With success.