Experts from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment recommended last year the addition of three protected areas to preserve important habitats for woodland caribou, it has been learned The dutybut the Legault government has still not implemented them. These territories could nevertheless be preserved without harming the interests of the forestry industry.
Following a request for access to information, The duty obtained a copy of various documents produced by experts from the Quebec Ministry of the Environment over the past two years, in the context of the development of the provincial strategy for the protection of forest caribou promised by the CAQ government, but which has still not seen the light of day.
One of these documents, entitled “Proposal for new protected areas”, was written by scientists from the ministry who were mandated to “propose new protected areas to be included in the project Strategy for forest and mountain caribou “.
Dated May 2023, it reports on three proposals from the Protected Areas Directorate that “represent a greater interest for the protection of caribou, without generating additional impact on the exploitation and development of natural resources”. This concerns industrial logging, but also the interests of the mining industry.
The first proposal involves an “expansion” of protected territories in the Pipmuacan region, which the Innu have wanted to protect for several years. According to what can be read in the document from the government experts, last year there was talk of creating a protected area and their proposal allowed for the addition of protection measures for “conservation massifs”, i.e. forest habitats essential to the survival of the caribou.
The document does not specify the area that would have been protected. It does, however, contain maps to “illustrate” the whole thing, but these are completely blacked out. This is also the case for the maps detailing the three “proposals” included in the document produced by the ministry’s experts.
In April 2023, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette promised “protective measures” to try to save the Pipmuacan caribou from extinction. The provincial strategy for the deer was then expected for June, before being pushed back once again.
Protecting the Pipmuacan
Without wishing to comment on the document obtained by The dutythe Minister’s office today reaffirmed its intention to create a protected area in the Pipmuacan region, within the context of the Framework Agreement between the Innu of Pessamit First Nation and the government announced earlier this year. Under the Framework Agreement, both parties “commit to discuss the possibility of creating and establishing” such a protected area.
The federal government could, however, get ahead of Quebec in the emergency decree that Ottawa intends to impose on the Legault government. This decree is currently subject to consultation, but the Pipmuacan has been identified for the implementation of protection measures. This territory had already been targeted for the creation of a protected area, but the project was rejected in 2020 by the Legault government.
The document prepared by experts from the Ministry of the Environment also proposes an “expansion of the proposed biodiversity reserve of Lake Onistagane”, located north of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean. This would protect “areas of intensive use by caribou”, but also “conservation massifs” of old forests.
Government experts are also discussing the idea of expanding the Caribous-Forestiers-de-Manouane-Manicouagan biodiversity reserve, but without including certain areas whose protection would have “major impacts” on the mining industry and logging.
This proposal is, at least in part, the same as the one presented in April by the Legault government, which wants to expand the biodiversity reserve to add an area of approximately 4,826 km.2. It would thus exceed 10,000 km.2But before moving forward, Quebec is holding consultations until October 31.
Lack of listening
Invited to comment on documents obtained by The dutybiologist Pier-Olivier Boudreault, of the Société pour la nature et les parcs du Québec, sees this as an example of the government’s failure to listen to the advice of its experts. “If the Quebec government had listened to its Ministry of the Environment and protected the Pipmuacan sector, we might have avoided federal government intervention in the caribou issue,” he argues.
“It is becoming increasingly urgent to protect the last intact forests that the caribou greatly need for its recovery in Quebec, and also to publish a strategy for all caribou,” adds Mr. Boudreault, recalling that the creation of protected areas for this species is also “a major opportunity to achieve our target of protecting 30% of the territory by 2030.”
Another document obtained under the Access to Information Act also demonstrates the importance of reducing “disturbances” to caribou habitat. The experts’ “comments and recommendations” are redacted in this document, but it states that “with a disturbance rate of 35% in its range, there is about a one in two chance that a caribou population will disappear.”
Even though it does not guarantee the conditions necessary for the survival of a herd of threatened deer, this rate is nevertheless regularly mentioned by Quebec and Ottawa as the threshold to be respected to ensure the maintenance of populations. It must be said that in several cases, the disturbance rate is significantly higher. In Pipmuacan, Charlevoix, Gaspésie and the Val-d’Or sector, it exceeds 80%. This is what leads specialists of the species to say that some herds are condemned to decades of captivity.