The patience of the federal government has reached its limits. Faced with the “critical” situation of the woodland caribou and the absence of a species protection strategy from the Legault government, Minister Steven Guilbeault is demanding a meeting with his provincial counterparts. He also says he is ready to act if Quebec refuses to take the necessary measures to avoid the disappearance of the species.
“As you know, the situation of the boreal caribou is critical, and time is running out to act in order to preserve this unique and important species in the Quebec landscape, both today and for our children and grandchildren,” said the Minister. of the Environment of the Trudeau government, in a letter he has just sent to the Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, and to the Minister of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, Pierre Dufour. He thus confirms the desire expressed in an interview with the Duty in December.
After taking note of “another postponement, i.e. until 2023, of the publication of his strategy for woodland and mountain caribou”, Steven Guilbeault believes that it is time to “accelerate the taking of measures in order to obtain concrete short-term results in the protection of species at risk in Quebec”, and in particular the woodland caribou.
In this context, he requests a meeting “as soon as possible” with Benoit Charette and Pierre Dufour “to discuss how we can work better together,” he wrote in his letter. The duty was able to obtain a copy of the letter, which was first the subject of a text published in The Press Thursday morning.
Although he says he is “optimistic” about the possibility of collaboration between Ottawa and Quebec, Minister Guilbeault stresses that he will have an obligation to act if the Legault government does not do so, while the decline of the species continues.
The woodland caribou is indeed protected under the Species at Risk Act. Thus, writes the federal Minister of the Environment, “I am required to recommend a regulatory option when a species faces a threat to its survival or recovery, or when critical habitat is not effectively protected”.
However, the habitat of the woodland caribou is increasingly disturbed, in particular by the forestry industry, so much so that there are only a few thousand woodland caribou left in Quebec and the decline continues. Some groups of deer are now in an “extremely precarious” situation and their long-term survival is described as “unlikely”, according to experts from the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks.
Independent commission
Instead of presenting a “strategy” for the protection of the species, as it had promised to do, the Legault government announced in November that it was postponing it and that it was mandating an “independent commission” responsible for carrying out consultations. regional this winter. This commission does not include any caribou experts.
In an official statement sent to the Duty in response to Minister Steven Guilbeault’s letter, Minister Dufour’s office is relying on the work of this commission to determine what to do next. “The future of woodland and mountain caribou is of great concern to us and since our arrival in government, we have taken concrete steps to protect caribou, in particular with the construction of protective enclosures, work to restore their habitat and the creation of an independent commission”, also recalled the minister’s office.
The Director General of the Society for Nature and Parks of Quebec, Alain Branchaud, welcomed Minister Guilbeault’s letter. “This is a skillful and daring letter, which calls on Quebec to collaborate for the recovery of species at risk while working to achieve the objective of protecting 30% of the territory by 2030. With its commitment to devote for non-industrial purposes 50% of the Plan Nord territory, Québec is well positioned to respond to this call from the federal government and reaffirm its leadership in conservation. »
Captivity
When deciding on the creation of “protected areas” which made it possible to achieve the 2020 objectives for the protection of the territory of Quebec, the Legault government abandoned at least a dozen projects which would have made it possible to increase the protection measures of the caribou. Among these was a 310 km² project put forward by the Quebec Ministry of the Environment and designated as a “priority sector” for the species. There was also a series of four projects carried out in particular by the Innu and located in the region of the Pipmuacan reservoir, northeast of Lac-Saint-Jean.
In addition, a total of three isolated populations of caribou will soon find themselves in captivity. The last seven caribou in the Val-d’Or region have already been living in an enclosure since March 2020. As for the last 17 caribou in Charlevoix, the government hopes to send them into captivity this winter in a 0.2 km² enclosure built in the Grands-Jardins national park.
Finally, the government plans to capture pregnant females from the Gaspésie caribou population so that they give birth in an enclosure. Even if the captivity is planned for this winter, the enclosures are not finished before next fall.