Claiming to want to protect a “foundation” of their ancestral way of life, the Innu nations are about to resort to the courts to force the Legault government to protect the woodland caribou. For its part, the Société pour la nature et les parcs could launch a legal action to force the federal government to act, in the face of Quebec’s refusal to implement a plan to save this increasingly endangered species.
The Legault government recently decided to postpone once again the tabling of a “strategy” supposed to make it possible to slow down the decline of the woodland caribou in Quebec. He then entrusted a mandate for regional consultations to an “independent commission” which does not include any expert of this kind.
For the Council of the Innu First Nation of Essipit and the Council of the First Nation of Pekuakamiulnuatsh, the government is on the wrong track by acting in this way. “We are very disappointed with the government’s attitude. This commission is completely useless, because Quebec already has all the data and all the science necessary to take measures to protect the caribou, ”summarized Tuesday the chief of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, Gilbert Dominique, in an interview with the To have to.
According to him, the Legault government seeks above all “to gain time while awaiting the next elections”, scheduled for 2022. “Listening is more important for foresters. This is the observation we are making, ”he dropped.
After sending an unanswered formal notice to the government to demand “immediate protection measures” of the woodland caribou and “a nation-to-nation dialogue”, the two Innu nations are on the verge of taking legal action. , said Mr. Dominique. According to what he argued, this approach stems from the lack of “consultation” on the part of the government on the issue of caribou protection, a species that is “at the heart of traditional identity and culture. Innu ”.
Gilbert Dominique cites the example of the Legault government’s decision to set aside several protected area projects that would have increased the protection of habitats conducive to the survival of woodland caribou. Among these, there was a series of four projects led in particular by the Innu and located in the Pipmuacan reservoir region, northeast of Lac-Saint-Jean.
Federal request
For its part, the Société pour la nature et des parcs (SNAP Québec) is seriously considering taking legal action to force governments to protect the habitat of the caribou, which is especially disturbed by intensive logging in several regions of the region. province.
According to what its director general, Alain Branchaud, indicated on Tuesday, the federal government should intervene in the file, since the government of Quebec does not adequately protect the habitat of this species, which is protected under the Species Act. in danger. “Faced with the inaction of the government of Quebec, the federal government would have the legal legitimacy to act”, he summed up in To have to.
The government of Quebec announced at the beginning of November that it will not present a strategy this year to protect the various populations of caribou. No date is now mentioned by the Ministry of Forests, Wildlife and Parks (MFFP), which simply mentions a “strategy to come”.
Instead of a rescue plan for the species, the minister responsible for the MFFP, Pierre Dufour, has decided to set up an “independent commission” which will have to conduct public consultations “in certain regions” where we finds woodland caribou, namely Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Côte-Nord, Abitibi-Témiscamingue and Nord-du-Québec. All of these regions have a forestry industry. As for “citizens of other regions”, they will be able to “express themselves on the issue of caribou by submitting a brief”.
Decline of the species
Meanwhile, the most recent inventories carried out by MFFP experts have shown that the situation continues to deteriorate for different populations. In some areas, there are “almost no more caribou”, according to the MFFP.
Overall, the ministry estimated in 2012 that there were 6,000 to 8,500 woodland caribou in Quebec. This figure will certainly be lower when the next report is published, according to the professor in the biology department of the University of Quebec at Rimouski and woodland caribou expert Martin-Hugues St-Laurent.
Some populations are on the verge of extinction, after years of decline. This is the case for the last six caribou in the Val-d’Or region, which were placed in captivity in March 2020. Those from Charlevoix, which are not more than 25 individuals, will also all be placed in enclosures shortly. . In the case of the Gaspé caribou, the MFFP plans to capture the pregnant females next winter, and not the 50 or so animals that make up the last caribou population living south of the St. Lawrence.