Caribou protection | Quebec must present a plan by May 1, threatens Ottawa

Ottawa serves an ultimatum to Quebec and tells the Legault government to present “no later than 1^er May » its caribou protection and recovery strategy, otherwise the federal government could itself take measures, before summer, to protect this threatened species.

Reiterating “the urgency to act in the face of the continued decline of the caribou” in Quebec, the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, warned his provincial counterpart, Benoit Charette, on Thursday that the rubber band had been stretched at most, in a letter that The Press obtained.

Two distinct procedures have been initiated by the federal government, and each could lead to the adoption of a decree to protect caribou habitat in Quebec, de facto prohibiting, on a portion of the province’s territory, industrial activities such as logging. forests, the main culprits in the decline of deer.

The first procedure, initiated at the beginning of 2023, stems from the observation by Environment and Climate Change Canada that almost all of the critical habitat in Quebec of the woodland caribou, called boreal caribou by Ottawa, is not effectively protected.

Minister Guilbeault must present, no later than June, to the federal Council of Ministers the progress made by Quebec to better protect the critical habitat of the caribou and indicate whether this progress is in his opinion sufficient or whether Ottawa must intervene, which would involve intervention at large scale.

The second procedure, initiated in October after requests to this effect from the First Nations, aims to determine whether the caribou faces an “imminent threat” to its survival and recovery.

If Ottawa concludes that this is the case, Minister Guilbeault will be bound by the Endangered Species Act to recommend to the Council of Ministers to adopt an emergency decree for the herds concerned, which in this case would involve interventions on a smaller scale than in the first procedure.

The absence of a Quebec strategy will weigh heavily in the balance, underlines Minister Guilbeault in his letter.

“In the event that I recommend an emergency decree, I remind you that a published strategy, or the absence of such a strategy, could influence the deliberations of the Governor in Council in its decision whether or not to accept my recommendation », he writes.

Guilbeault “concerned”

The choice of words in Steven Guilbeault’s letter to his counterpart Benoit Charette reveals the exasperation of the federal minister, who recalls that Quebec’s initial commitment to present a plan to reverse the decline of the caribou dates from 2016.

After various postponements, Quebec committed in 2022 to presenting its “Strategy for forest and mountain caribou” no later than June 2023, but the historic scale of the forest fires which raged at that time led to a umpteenth report.

Then, the plan was finally to be made public “in the first days of January,” said Minister Benoit Charette just before Christmas.

This missive comes less than two weeks after Minister Guilbeault publicly showed signs of impatience, calling for “something to happen soon,” he declared during a press conference, without giving any details. deadline at this time.

Quebec is the only province that has not concluded an agreement with the federal government for the protection of the caribou, underlines Minister Guilbeault’s office.

The Legault government is thus depriving itself of federal funds for the protection of the caribou and for the economic transition of the communities concerned, the minister recalls in his letter.

“The reopening of negotiations on a possible collaboration agreement cannot take place until Environment and Climate Change Canada has received and evaluated the Strategy,” writes the minister.

Quebec still has no date

Quebec was still unable on Friday to say when its plan would be presented or why it has not yet been presented.

“We are continuing the work to table a strategy for the protection of woodland caribou habitat,” said Minister Charette’s press secretary, Amélie Moffet, simply saying, adding to take note of Ottawa’s impatience.

The document is still stuck at the stage of consultations between the different ministries, both on the administrative side and on the political side, indicated to The Press a source familiar with the matter, but who was not authorized to speak publicly about it.