With its arrogance and contempt, the federal government is alienating the regions and rolling back the protection of the caribou, according to Quebec Environment Minister Benoît Charette, who pleaded his case in Ottawa on Tuesday.
Not only does Ottawa’s approach to the caribou issue “make no sense” and threatens the economy of “around thirty villages”, but it also “set back the cause of the caribou”, indicated Minister Charette during a press briefing on Parliament Hill in Ottawa.
“The regions are mobilizing” against the federal government on the caribou issue, said the minister.
“We are going to have to row in the gravel” to “repair the damage”, because “people are very angry”, he indicated, referring in particular to the village of Sacré-Cœur, on the North Shore, where The Boisaco forestry cooperative is located.
The federal decree will not attack “bad multinationals”, but rather “citizens who have come together to put forward” a cooperative “which gives absolutely formidable results”, argued the minister Cart.
The federal government’s decree aimed at forcing Quebec to protect certain caribou herds would cause the loss of “1,400 jobs” and “around thirty villages would be threatened in terms of their existence,” added the minister.
PHOTO SPENCER COLBY, THE CANADIAN PRESS
Benoit Charette
A few months ago, Ottawa began taking steps to impose a decree on Quebec in order to force the province to protect three caribou populations, namely those of Val-d’Or, Charlevoix and Pipmuacan.
The allowable forestry would decrease by 1.4 million cubic meters of wood per year in the three zones where the emergency decree would be imposed to protect the caribou, according to the chief forester of Quebec.
At the provincial level, the decree would cause a drop of 4.1% in the allowable cut.
But this drop would particularly affect the village of Sacré-Cœur, because the wood supply from the Boisaco cooperative would be cut by 60%.
In several regions of Quebec, the forestry industry is responsible for the decline of the caribou, because it deprives it of its habitat and its food. Also, forest roads encourage the movement of caribou’s natural predators.
Benoit Charette seeks support
At the start of his press briefing, the Quebec Minister of the Environment confided that his visit to the federal capital was used in particular to find support.
“I had the opportunity to meet colleagues from the opposition and the Bloc Québécois and the Conservative Party and I have to meet a member of the NDP a little later, in the afternoon. I would have liked to meet liberal elected officials. Unfortunately, they do not seem to be available today,” explained Benoit Charette.
He also let it be known that he found the Bloc Québécois to be timid on the issue.
“I would like the Bloc Québécois, in a very assertive manner, to demand the withdrawal of this threat of decrees” and to have “a much stronger voice in this matter.”