Quebec announces $59.5 million to protect caribou

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The Quebec government plans to invest $59.5 million to implement projects to protect caribou, severely affected by human activity, and will begin regional consultations in Charlevoix and Gaspésie.

Federal Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault hoped that Legault’s government would present its caribou protection strategy by May 1, otherwise the file could fall back into his hands.

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Instead of presenting a national strategy, Quebec Environment Minister Benoit Charette opted for measures that he called “important” and “historic” and that are aimed at certain regions. But he offered few details about the measures during a news conference Tuesday in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts.

The nearly $60 million includes $7.5 million this year to monitor and manage the caribou population and $7 million this year for habitat restoration. The total amount will be divided “between the two ministries equally,” Charette briefly explained, referring to the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests.

In a statement, the government wrote that “for the two territories targeted by the regional projects, the legal designation of wildlife habitats of a threatened or vulnerable species is foreseen, under the Law on Wildlife Conservation and Development.”

The Quebec government also intends to expand the Caribous-Forestiers-de-Manouane-Manicouagan biodiversity reserve (approximately 4,826 square kilometers).

“Quebec is playing a dangerous game”

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The measures introduced Tuesday affect three of the province’s 13 caribou populations.

The organization Nature Québec welcomed the investment and the “regional projects” of protection and restoration, but considered it “unacceptable that the caribou strategy promised for five years has not yet been revealed” and that the government seemed happy to present it. regional projects” instead.

Nature Québec said it believes “Quebec is playing a dangerous game and opening the door wide to federal intervention.”

The Canadian Parks and Wildlife Society said it welcomes “the partial unblocking of the caribou file” in Quebec and that the measures presented have the potential to contribute to the recovery of the Gaspésie and Charlevoix caribou.

However, the director of the Quebec section of the CPAWS, Alain Branchaud, stated that “in the absence of a clear calendar for the presentation of a caribou strategy for the entire territory and in the face of the urgency to act, we maintain our request for rapid intervention by the federal government to specifically protect herds on the brink of collapse, particularly pipmuakan.”

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Potential conflict between Quebec and Ottawa

In August 2022, the independent commission on mountain forests and caribou presented a report to the government, in which it stressed that there is “urgency to act” and that it was necessary to “proceed as quickly as possible to the development and implementation of a strategy for the protection and recovery of forest caribou.”

A few days after this report, Quebec and Ottawa reached an agreement in principle to protect the species and the province committed to publishing its final forest and mountain caribou strategy before the end of June 2023.

Charette, however, delayed the date due to the forest fires ravaging the territory of Quebec. The government wanted to examine the fires’ effect on caribou and logging.

Guilbeault asked the province to present its strategy by May 1 of this year.

On Tuesday, Charette stated that, according to his government, “it is not the responsibility of the Canadian government to interfere in this matter” and that the Quebec government was in control of this particular file. “The federal government has reached agreements with the other provinces,” but Quebec “is going much further than the other provinces, not only in terms of the measures themselves, but also in terms of budgets.”

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Consultations

The government invites Quebecers to participate in public consultations on projects specifically aimed at protecting the Charlevoix forest caribou population and the Gaspésie mountain caribou population.

Under the Law on endangered or vulnerable speciesThe woodland caribou was designated a vulnerable species in 2005.

In February 2022, the Quebec government captured the Charlevoix herd, which then numbered 16 animals, and imprisoned it in an enclosure as part of a controversial plan to prevent the extinction of the herds in isolated areas.

The Gaspésie mountain caribou live in the Chic-Chocs and McGerrigle Mountains mountain ranges. This population was designated as a threatened species in 2009 in Quebec. There are only about 30 left.

The caribou population has been declining in Quebec for several years. In total, there are only about 5,000 forest or mountain caribou left in the province.

Logging is the main cause of this precariousness, particularly due to logging roads, which destroy habitat and encourage the movement of the caribou’s natural predators, such as bears and wolves.

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