The Quebec government is not committed to submitting its caribou protection strategy within federal deadlines, but still expects Ottawa to partially finance it.
This is what Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, said on Tuesday when questioned by the three opposition parties in the National Assembly about his long-awaited strategy. Postponed several times since 2019, its filing could still take place after 1er May, the deadline imposed by Justin Trudeau’s government last month, mentioned the elected CAQ member.
“The federal government is asking us to intervene, so it therefore has, in my opinion, a duty to finance part of the process,” he said on Tuesday.
In March, Mr. Charette’s counterpart in Ottawa, Steven Guilbeault, said he feared the repercussions on the species from the delays observed in Quebec. “I am very concerned by these additional delays given the extremely precarious situation of this species and the need to quickly implement concrete and ambitious conservation measures,” he underlined in a letter in which he warned the government of François Legault of his intentions to impose protective measures himself.
In 2022, Justin Trudeau’s government threatened to itself introduce protection for the caribou’s “essential habitat” in the face of Quebec’s refusal to create new protected areas. Quebec responded by denouncing the federal encroachment on the powers of the Quebec state.
” In the next weeks “
Bombarded with questions on this subject, Mr. Charette indicated on Tuesday that he was not working “according to federal deadlines”. He still believes he will be able to make the document public “in the coming weeks”.
“It’s an eminently complex matter basically. It’s complex because we have several communities in Quebec that make a living from forestry and this issue was made more complex last summer by unprecedented forest fires,” he recalled.
The strategy was ready last summer, when summer fires pushed Quebec to postpone its presentation. Since then, and despite a commitment to submit the document in January 2024, nothing.
Last year, during the study of environmental budget appropriations, Mr. Charette said he wanted to create several protected areas for caribou, including in Pipmuacan, this sector of Saguenay for which the Innu of Pessamit and Essipit are requesting backup since 2020. Even this announcement is no longer guaranteed. “The situation has changed,” Mr. Charette told DutyTHURSDAY.
In its last report, the Independent Commission on Forest and Mountain Caribou — set up by the Legault government — raised the “urgency to act” in the matter, in particular to save the isolated herds of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, of Gaspésie and Charlevoix.