Péribonka River Protected Area | Quebec dismisses the ideators of the project for the benefit of the opponents

Quebec excludes from the committee in charge of concretizing the protected area of ​​the Péribonka river the organization which carried the project since 2010. On the other hand, the opponents will have their seat there, learned The Press.

Jean-Thomas Léveillé
The Press

“It’s a contemptuous attitude towards citizens who get involved,” laments Ève Tremblay.

The Péribonka River Safeguarding Committee (CSRP), of which she is a member with some fifteen volunteers, has been leading the protected area project in the Péribonka River sector, in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, for 12 years. Quebec confirmed last June.

But their group is not one of the 11 “interveners in the community” that the Ministry of the Environment and the Fight against Climate Change (MELCC) invited to the committee responsible for finalizing the project, even if it had expressly requested ‘be part of it, learned The Press.

This committee will be called upon to consider the “fine limits” of the territory to be protected, its protection status, its management and its development as well as the main objectives of the conservation plan, indicated the MELCC to The Pressjustifying the absence of the project’s creators by the presence on the committee of the Regional Council for the Environment and Sustainable Development of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.

M^me Tremblay emphasizes the expertise acquired by the group, “that no one else can have”.

Make way for opponents

On the other hand, various “local stakeholders” opposed to the protected area project sit on the committee formed by the MELCC, including the four regional county municipalities (RCMs) of Lac-Saint-Jean, which have often called for a method of protecting the territory allowing the continuation of logging.

Even the MRC du Domaine-du-Roy, whose territory does not touch the proposed protected area, has a place there.

Its prefect Yannick Baillargeon is the president of the Alliance Forêt boréale, a paramunicipal organization whose mandate is to “defend the interests of forest communities” and which deplored at this time last year that protected areas threaten the regional forest industry. .

“Mr. Baillargeon is not giving an interview on this subject for the moment”, indicated to The Press Karine Côté, spokesperson for the MRC.

Also on the committee is the Regional Conference of Wardens (of the MRCs), which shares its staff and offices with the Alliance Forêt boréale.

These are the organizations that put pressure on Quebec to remove from the committee the group of citizens behind the project, indicated to The Press sources familiar with the matter.

“We said without naming anyone that we wanted a neutral committee,” defended Aldé Gauthier, director general of the Boreal Forest Alliance and the Regional Conference of Prefects.

“We didn’t want lobby organizations” on the committee, he said, refuting the idea that the Boreal Forest Alliance itself was one – he claimed at the time that the organization sat on the committee , but recalled The Press at the end of the day to indicate having been explained to the contrary by the MELCC.

“We did not explicitly ask that the Safeguard Committee [de la rivière Péribonka] is not present,” added Mr. Gauthier. “If we said that, I would like to see the writing. »

The Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks, whose obstruction of the creation of protected areas has often made the headlines, also sits on the committee.

Organizations in favor of the project were also invited to join: the Innu community of Mashteuiatsh, the Lac-Saint-Jean watershed organization, the Créneau d’excellence in adventure tourism and ecotourism as well as the municipality of Lamarche, which will be the gateway to the protected area.

“Almost everyone is there, except the organization that is the origin of the protected area. A chance that ridicule does not kill! exclaimed biologist and forest engineer Louis Bélanger, retired professor from Laval University and co-responsible for Nature Québec’s Forest Commission.

To divert attention

There is an “overrepresentation on the municipal side within the committee,” also notes Tommy Tremblay, director general of the CREDD, who says he is surprised at the absence of the Péribonka River Safeguard Committee.

The exclusion of the citizens who launched the protected area project could divert attention and compromise “the legitimacy of the conclusions that will emanate from the work of this committee”, fears the biologist Alain Branchaud, director general of the Quebec section of the Society for Nature and Parks (SNAP-Québec).

He is not offended that the opponents of the project are at the discussion table, believing that it is “always a good idea to have all the points of view”, but he anticipates that their “omnipresence” will so the committee will mostly be talking about impacts on forestry.

Ève Tremblay also fears that opponents will take advantage of the committee to “try to eat away at a bit of area” of the future protected area.