At a time when the rag is burning between Ottawa and the government of François Legault over the protection of woodland caribou, Ontario has just concluded an agreement with the federal government to protect boreal caribou on its territory.
Posted yesterday at 4:45 p.m.
The governments of Canada and Ontario announced on Friday “they have reached an agreement to support the conservation and recovery of boreal caribou in Ontario.” Boreal caribou are a subspecies of woodland caribou. The species has been listed as Threatened under the Species at Risk Act (SARA) and Ontario’s Endangered Species Act.
The caribou population in Ontario is estimated at approximately 5,000 individuals.
The agreement builds on Ontario’s current Caribou Conservation Program and Federal Caribou Action Plan. The agreement provides in particular for “increasing the protection of boreal caribou habitat by focusing on protected areas and other effective conservation measures established according to the sectors”.
“We, according to our lawyers, it is clearly, the caribou, a field of competence of the government of Quebec, not of the federal government”, declared François Legault, during a press briefing on Wednesday. “This assertion is obviously incorrect,” replied the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, who specified that the environment is rather a shared responsibility.
Thursday, Steven Guilbeault’s office indicated that a meeting between the federal and provincial deputy ministers had taken place on Wednesday, during which the Quebec government “undertook to return quickly in writing” to this file.
In Quebec, it is confirmed that a meeting took place between senior officials on Wednesday. “It was agreed to review the situation next week to agree on the elements of a new agreement and a timetable for this agreement,” explains Florence Plourde, the press secretary for the Minister responsible for Canadian Relations, Sonia LeBel.