Unable to obtain sufficient commitments from the Legault government to halt the decline of the woodland caribou in Quebec, the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, says he is ready to directly decree the measures necessary to protect the “critical habitat” of the caribou. species, learned The duty. Such a gesture, unprecedented on the part of the federal government, could add more than 35,000 km2 protected habitats for deer.
Earlier this year, Minister Steven Guilbeault had already written to the Legault government to demand a meeting to discuss the measures to be taken to halt the decline of the woodland caribou, a species protected under federal legislation: the Species Act in danger.
However, in a new letter sent in recent days to the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour, and whose The duty obtained a copy, the federal Minister of the Environment points out that Quebec and Ottawa have not been able to reach an agreement.
Concretely, the two governments have not come to an agreement on concrete measures for the “protection” of caribou, in the context of their “collaboration” on the protection of species at risk.
In this context, Steven Guilbeault summons the Legault government to send him “any information” on the laws, regulations and other “concrete measures” which “contribute to the protection of the essential habitat of boreal caribou and their critical habitat”. This information must be sent no later than April 20.
From there, the federal government will assess whether Quebec is doing enough to avoid the decline and disappearance of the species, whose habitat is increasingly disturbed, mainly due to the impacts of the forestry industry. If Minister Guilbeault judges that the measures do not “effectively” protect cervid habitat, he will have to recommend that a “decree” be issued to protect it, under his “obligations” under the Act respecting species at risk.
The office of Minister Pierre Dufour did not wish to comment on the letter or the follow-up on Monday. “The minister intends to respond directly in writing to his counterpart in the coming days, without an intermediary,” it was said by email.
35,000 km2
For the director of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud, this “unprecedented” gesture by the federal government could lead to the protection of entire swaths of Quebec’s boreal forest, and this, in the coming months. He estimates that “minimum 35,000 km2even up to 42,000 km2 of caribou habitats could be protected”.
It must be said that the regions considered to be part of the “critical habitat” of the species have already been identified. “But for a very large part of the woodland caribou habitat, the conclusion of the federal government will be that there are no protective measures,” he warns. This is the case for sectors considered to be priorities for the species, including that of “Grasset”, located in the Nord-du-Québec region, north and west of Matagami. Same thing for the “Manouane-Plétipi-Manicouagan” sector, with an area of 16,191 km2which is located on the North Shore, and for that of “Romaine”, with an area of 13,968 km2 is located on the North Shore, east of the Romaine River.
Added to this are at least fifteen areas identified as essential habitats for the species. The duty had already revealed that several of these were neglected by the Legault government during the establishment of “protected areas” which made it possible to reach the target of protection of 17% of the territory of Quebec, in 2020 .
This is the case of the Pipmuacan sector, located northeast of Lac Saint-Jean, and whose protection is demanded by the Innu. The caribou population there is “in an extremely precarious state” and “its capacity for self-sufficiency is unlikely under current conditions”, according to an inventory by experts from the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.
The department headed by Pierre Dufour, for its part, studied a “hypothetical and theoretical” scenario for the protection of woodland caribou which would involve the pure and simple disappearance of certain populations, avoiding financial losses for the forestry industry. These are caribou from the Val-d’Or region, already in captivity, those from Charlevoix, which have just been sent into captivity, and those from the Pipmuacan sector.
The Independent Commission set up by the Legault government with the mandate to propose means of “limiting the socio-economic impacts” of the protection of this endangered species begins its public consultations on Tuesday. It will be a question of the caribou of Gaspésie, a herd on the verge of extinction which numbers barely thirty animals.
“The objective is to protect caribou habitats while limiting the socio-economic repercussions of this protection. The ministry will then be able to decide if it does a little more or a little less,” explained the president of the commission, Nancy Gélinas, last month. She is the dean of the Faculty of Forestry, Geography and Geomatics at Université Laval.
“Our mandate is not to develop caribou expertise. We will not become caribou experts,” added Ms.me Gelinas. Of the three commissioners, none is actually an expert in the case that is at the heart of their mandate.