Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault is once again pressing Quebec to present its plan to protect caribou habitat, several years after promising a strategy to save the declining population.
While in Montreal on Monday morning, the minister once again called on the Quebec government to respect the agreement signed between the two governments in August 2022 to protect the caribou.
“If Quebec does not act, I will have a legal obligation to act. Then it’s not what I prefer to do, it’s not what I want to do. But if there is no concrete action from the Quebec government, I will have no other choice,” he indicated.
Steven Guilbeault could recommend the issuance of a “deer protection decree” if Quebec does not act.
“It is clear that the Quebec government is slow to act”, but “time is not our ally in this matter, on the contrary”, indicated the minister, recalling that in the summer of 2022, “the government of Quebec has committed to doing a certain number of things, including protecting 65% of critical caribou habitat in Quebec.
The habitat protection project was to be presented in June 2023, but Quebec’s Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, postponed it because of the forest fires which were then hitting Quebec territory. At the time, the government said it wanted to examine the impact of the fires on caribou and logging.
“The next forest fire season is coming and we still don’t have that plan. Something will have to happen soon,” said Steven Guilbeault in an exchange with journalists on Monday. However, the federal minister did not mention a “deadline”.
The presentation of the forest caribou habitat protection strategy has been postponed several times since 2019. At the time, the file was in the hands of the member for Abitibi-Est, Pierre Dufour, then Minister of Forests, of Wildlife and Parks.
Moving animals “wouldn’t solve anything”
The federal minister also commented on the information according to which caribou will be captured between Nord-du-Québec and Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean to be transferred to enclosures in Val-d’Or in Abitibi. Depending on what The Press reported Monday morning, this initiative from Quebec would aim to swell the ranks of the Val-d’Or herd, the last nine individuals of which are kept in an enclosure.
“There has been no official communication between the government of Quebec and us” on this subject, mentioned Steven Guilbeault, emphasizing that moving animals “would not solve anything”.
“What we are trying to preserve is the caribou, of course, but also its habitat” and “if the caribou is not doing well, it is because the ecosystem is not doing well.” It is therefore “the entire ecosystem that must be protected”, mentioned the minister.
The caribou population has been declining in Quebec for several years, mainly due to logging.
In many regions of Quebec, the industry has removed much of the old forest and replaced it with younger trees, thereby depriving caribou of their habitat and food. Forest roads also encourage the movement of caribou’s natural predators such as bears and wolves.