(OTTAWA) Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault was encouraged Thursday as talks on caribou protection resumed with Quebec.
Posted at 3:13 p.m.
He said in a scrum that officials met on Wednesday to discuss the file that has been a source of friction in previous weeks.
“Last night, the associate deputy minister told me that the conversations – I even think we can talk about negotiations – were going much better,” said Mr. Guilbeault before going to question period in the Commons.
If he stressed that it is “an improvement”, he pointed out that he did not throw in the trash his plan to intervene by federal decree to limit the decline of the caribou, an endangered species.
“I am moving forward with this in case there is no agreement with the Government of Quebec, but I prefer […] that there is an agreement,” said the minister.
Mr. Guilbeault clarified that issuing a decree in this area “is not done by shouting ‘scissors’”. If he goes all the way, he will have to present his draft to the table of the council of ministers.
“We have never issued a conservation decree like that in the country’s history,” he also argued.
Mr. Guilbeault had given until April 20 to Quebec Minister of Forests, Pierre Dufour, to share a plan to protect caribou and their habitat. The day after this deadline, the federal minister announced that he was taking steps to intervene by decree.
The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, did not hide his annoyance in this case, arguing that the issue fell within a field of provincial jurisdiction.
On several occasions, he has also said that his government wants to settle the file by finding a balance between the protection of wildlife and jobs.
Logging is seen as the main cause of the decline of woodland and mountain caribou. Forest roads favor the movement of caribou’s natural predators, such as bears and wolves.