(Ottawa) The Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, does not rule out protecting other caribou herds in Quebec in addition to the three which have been the subject of an emergency decree since last week. The Superior Court recently ordered the Quebec government to conduct a separate consultation process with the Innu First Nations of Essipit and Pekuakamiulnuatsh who are concerned about the disappearance of woodland caribou on their respective territories.
“I am waiting for recommendations for other caribou populations from the ministry’s experts,” he responded at a press conference on the sidelines of a meeting of federal, provincial and territorial ministers on conservation and biodiversity. .
If these experts from the Ministry of the Environment and the Canadian Wildlife Service recommend protecting other caribou herds in Quebec, there would then be a new decree.
Consultations must begin soon on the one issued last week by the Trudeau government to protect three caribou herds in Quebec, namely those of Val-d’Or, Charlevoix and the Pipmuacan reservoir, which straddles the North Shore and Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean. These three herds number 9, 30 and less than 300 individuals respectively.
The decree does not include the herds that the Innu First Nations of Essipit on the North Shore and Pekuakamiulnuatsh in Lac-Saint-Jean want to protect.
“It still sends the signal that we are requiring Quebec to make decisions,” reacted the chief of the Pekuakamiulnuatsh First Nation, Gilbert Dominique. “There is an urgency to act. »
He was pleased that a recent Superior Court judgment recognized this urgency by ordering the Quebec government to launch a separate consultation process on its strategy to protect forest and mountain caribou by September 30. This strategy has been promised since 2016.
“So that the ancestral rights and claims of the applicant First Nations can truly be protected, it will be necessary to take a significant “step forward” in the protection measures, as the situation of the caribou on Quebec territory and its habitat on Nitassinan is deplorable. », writes judge Marie Cossette.
“This is a big step towards the recognition and protection of our rights,” noted Chef Dominique.
The Quebec Minister of the Environment, Benoit Charette, who did not participate in the federal-provincial meeting in Ottawa, did not react to the judgment. “We have taken note of the decision rendered by the Superior Court, which we will study before commenting further,” his office said.
The Quebec government fears the negative impact of caribou protection measures on the forestry industry. He estimated last week that the federal decree could lead to the loss of 2,400 to 30,000 direct and indirect jobs, depending on the extent of the territory that would be protected. Minister Guilbeault described these figures as exaggerated.