A parliamentary committee in Ottawa will finally study the effect of the federal caribou protection order on the forestry industry, after long and heated debates over the phrasing of a motion.
Most of the elected members of the Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development travelled to the federal capital in the middle of August to participate in person in this emergency meeting on Monday. It notably resulted in an invitation to appear for Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault.
The Bloc Québécois had obtained the Liberal Party’s agreement to allow parliamentarians to debate before this body the merits of the emergency decree issued by Ottawa in June to protect the essential habitat of three populations of forest caribou in Quebec.
“It was the best way for members to make themselves heard on this subject,” explained Bloc Québécois member Monique Pauzé.
The Bloc motion proposed studying “the means to adequately protect caribou while avoiding or minimizing the effects on economic activities,” by hearing from the minister, experts, and representatives of businesses, unions and First Nations. The party held a press briefing in July to ask Ottawa to give Quebec more time before imposing its caribou decree.
Stormy meeting
The meeting, however, began chaotically with the tabling of a separate motion on the same subject, which the Conservative Party of Canada had been trying to present since July before another parliamentary committee, the Natural Resources Committee. The Conservative text placed greater emphasis on studying the economic impacts on rural communities and forestry companies in Quebec. It was rejected.
“The Liberal Bloc at work! The Bloc Québécois is coming to the aid of Guilbeault’s radical job-killing decree,” Conservative MP Luc Berthold immediately fumed in a message sent on the social network X.
The official opposition wanted to invite many more witnesses, including several ministers, over six days. Its list included Quebec Liberal lieutenant Pablo Rodriguez, who is keeping the suspense about his ambitions for the leadership of the Quebec Liberal Party (PLQ), and the Minister of Innovation, Science and Industry, François-Philippe Champagne.
Conservative MP Richard Martel says he has received numerous distress calls from his fellow citizens concerned about the federal decree on caribou, which is still in the consultation phase. [Ce décret] “It can close businesses. It can close municipalities,” he says.
The Conservatives spent most of Monday’s meeting proposing amendments to extend the parliamentary study, call more witnesses, or add to the motion a denunciation of federal interference in Quebec’s jurisdictions, among other things. Most of the proposals were defeated.
Agreement found
“It’s 2024 [et] “The Conservatives think we can have an economy that is based in the air, that does not rely on the health of our ecology. That doesn’t make sense, where do they come from?” Liberal MP Sophie Chatel was indignant, during a moment of tension between committee members.
The leader of the New Democratic Party (NDP) refused earlier Monday to settle the debate between protecting woodland caribou and protecting jobs, since we must “do both.” His Quebec MNA, Alexandre Boulerice, instead urged the government to take action in favour of the environment before the committee. “We had COP15 in Montreal, we made fine speeches, but at some point it has to apply in real life as well.”
After two hours of debate, committee members from all parties finally voted in favour of the amended Bloc motion.
The Quebec government has already announced that it is boycotting the consultations that Ottawa is organizing under its emergency decree. According to its calculations, protecting the caribou’s essential habitat in this way will cause the loss of 2,000 jobs in the region.
Except for these types of emergency meetings, federal elected officials are not expected in Ottawa before the start of the school year, scheduled for Monday, September 16.