Caribou protection | The Innus of Pessamit put Ottawa and Quebec on formal notice

The Innus of Pessamit urge the federal and Quebec governments to put in place measures to protect the woodland caribou by the beginning of September, otherwise they will go to court.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

The First Nation located on the North Shore sent formal notices to this effect, by bailiff, to both levels of government this week.

The Pessamit Band Council is thus increasing the pressure on Ottawa, which has been studying for many months the possibility of intervening by decree to impose measures that Quebec is slow to put in place.

“Given the urgency of the situation and the inadequacy of the actions taken to date, the Council hereby calls on the Government of Canada to put in place concrete and expeditious measures to protect the species and habitat of the caribou”, indicates the formal notice addressed to Ottawa, of which The Press got a copy.

The six-page letter, which was served earlier this week on federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, is also addressed to Ministers of Indigenous Services, Patty Hajdu, and Crown-Indigenous Relations, Mark Miller.

It gives them 20 working days to act, which places the deadline around September 8, in the middle of the Quebec election campaign.

A similar letter was also sent to the Legault government urging it to act, as the Innu Council of Pessamit had threatened to do in May.

Proven strategy

In their letter to Ottawa, the Innu of Pessamit demand the adoption of a decree under the Species at Risk Acta strategy that has been successful in other files in the past.

Minister Steven Guilbeault notably adopted an emergency decree last November to protect the chorus frog in Longueuil, after two environmental defense organizations took legal action to force it to do so.

“Every time someone went to court to ask for an interim order [pour la protection d’espèces en péril]it worked,” confided to The Press a source in the federal government who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case.

Ottawa is thus led to carry out its threats of intervention in the short term, explains this source.

“We will have no choice, [sinon] we will be told by the courts to [le faire] “, she says.

Exasperation

The approach of the Innus of Pessamit reflects the exasperation of the community, which sees the caribou dying out, declared to The Press Jérôme Bacon Saint-Onge, outgoing vice-chief – elections will be held on August 17 to renew the Band Council.

“We are at the end of it,” he said. Until recently, we wondered: “What will it take to make them move?” »

He hopes that the formal notices will bear fruit and that it will not be necessary to go to court to ensure the protection ofAtik^a“caribou” in the Innu language, which is very important in Innu culture.

The formal notice issued by the Innu of Pessamit in Ottawa also underlines in broad strokes the responsibility of governments to respect the ancestral rights of Aboriginal peoples, which include their practices and customs.

“Not protecting the caribou is presented as a contravention of governments to their constitutional obligations”, observes Alain Branchaud, director general of the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP) of Quebec, who sees it as a “strategic approach”.

The CPAWS accompanies the Innu of Pessamit in their protected area project which aims to prevent the disappearance of the Pipmuacan caribou herd.

The scientific consensus is clear on the measures to be taken to protect the caribou, recalls Alain Branchaud.

“Canada’s Minister of the Environment has all the information in hand to make a decision and recommend to the Governor in Council to issue an Order in Council,” he said.

Federal law requires Ottawa to take the necessary steps to protect endangered species if the provinces do not meet their obligations in this regard, said to The Press Kaitlin Power, Minister Guilbeault’s press attaché.

“The door remains open to negotiation if Quebec really wants to work on caribou rehabilitation and protection,” she added.

The office of Quebec Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour, told The Press that he would not comment on Thursday evening.