Quebec can still avoid an intervention from Ottawa if it does “what it committed to” for the protection of the caribou, Steven Guilbeault declared on Wednesday, accusing the Legault government of leading a fear campaign by evoking important job losses in the forestry sector.
“It is both premature and irresponsible to throw figures into the air like that,” the federal Minister of Environment and Climate Change told La Presse, stressing that the Quebec government “knows very well” that A consultation process, particularly with the forestry industry, will precede the adoption of a possible decree in order to define the regions and areas affected, as well as the measures that will be put in place to support the affected communities.
“In fact, we are doing the work that the Quebec government committed to doing,” says Minister Guilbeault, recalling that the Quebec government has been promising a plan to protect caribou and their habitat since 2016, and that it is was committed in 2022 to submitting such a plan before June 2023.
The federal council of ministers gave its approval on Tuesday to the preparation of an emergency decree aimed at the protection of three caribou herds in Quebec, namely those of Val-d’Or, Charlevoix and the Pipmuacan reservoir, straddling the North Shore and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean.
The herds of Val-d’Or and Charlevoix, which were enclosed while their habitat was re-established, have a population of nine and thirty individuals respectively, while that of Pipmuacan has fewer than 300 animals, recalls Ottawa.
“It is not because the cabinet has approved my request for an emergency decree that I am obliged to go through with the process,” however, specifies Minister Guilbeault, indicating that he could give it up if Quebec proposes quickly come up with a plan to prevent the disappearance of these three very vulnerable herds.
Further details will follow.
