(Gatineau) The federal government is extending the consultation period regarding the decree it plans to impose on Quebec in order to force the province to protect caribou in three distribution areas: Val-d’Or, Charlevoix and Pipmuacan, in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.
The Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Steven Guilbeault, announced on Tuesday a four-week extension to this consultation which began on June 19.
The federal minister indicated in a press release that the decision followed the request “from several indigenous communities in Quebec and stakeholders.”
He added that the extension would also provide “an additional opportunity for the Quebec government to present a comprehensive strategy to protect boreal caribou.”
“We remain open to collaborating and supporting the Government of Quebec in implementing such a strategy. If Quebec takes sufficient measures, the implementation of the federal decree will not be necessary,” declared Minister Guilbeault.
“However, without an adequate strategy and given the threat to caribou, we have a legal responsibility to intervene to ensure the survival of the species,” he continued.
Last month, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette and his colleague from Natural Resources and Forests, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, informed Minister Guilbeault that Quebec would not participate in consultation meetings surrounding the development of a possible emergency decree to protect caribou.
According to them, the emergency decree represents a “unilateral and illegitimate decision by the federal government, which is categorically rejected by Quebec.”
The ministers of the Coalition avenir Québec government added that the federal government should “fully assume the economic and social consequences of its decision.”
Among these consequences, the province estimates that there will be “a loss of a minimum of 2,000 jobs, and this, only for the projected temporary zones.”
These job losses would result from the projected drop in forestry potential.
Quebec maintains that its own measures to protect the declining species are bearing fruit.
On Tuesday, the federal minister indicated that the extension until September 15 aims to give more time to the various stakeholders concerned “in order to participate adequately in these important consultations, while respecting the urgent nature of the situation.”