Photo: Valentin Bonnefont SEPAQ A young woodland caribou. The federal decree aims to protect the woodland caribou of Pipmuacan, Val-d’Or and Charlevoix.
If it does indeed move forward with its emergency caribou protection decree, Ottawa will have to “bear the brunt” of at least 2,000 job losses, warns the government of Quebec, which will not participate in the consultations surrounding the development of these measures.
Quebec’s environment minister, Benoit Charette, and forest minister, Maïté Blanchette Vézina, warned federal minister Steven Guilbeault of this Wednesday morning in a long letter denouncing his decision made in June. They did not mince their words.
“Your government’s approach […] constitutes an unspeakable affront and is in opposition to respect for the sharing of constitutional powers between levels of government,” they wrote.
Last month, Justin Trudeau’s federal government began a 60-day consultation exercise with the parties concerned in order to complete the implementation of its decree, which aims to protect the Pipmuacan, Val-d’Or and Charlevoix herds. The latter two have been living in captivity in enclosures for several years.
The federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, fears in particular the impacts of logging on the recovery of the most threatened herds in Quebec.
However, by implementing such a decree, Ottawa is directly threatening the industry, thunder the elected representatives of the Quebec government in their letter, citing the potential losses of 1.4 million cubic meters of wood per year. year mentioned by the Chief Forester of Quebec last week. “The projected drop […] would cause, according to our estimates, the loss of a minimum of 2,000 jobs, and this, only for the planned temporary zones,” they wrote.
“We consider that these job losses are far from being marginal since they would be concentrated in regions that are not very diversified in terms of economic activities and in which reclassification is often impossible,” they continued. “Your government should therefore bear the responsibility of bringing more than 2,000 families into precariousness. »
Effects on climate targets
And that’s not all. In their letter, the CAQ elected officials even underline the dangers of a caribou protection decree… on achieving greenhouse gas reduction targets.
“By acting in this way, the federal government is harming Quebec’s energy development potential, particularly in terms of the development of the wind industry,” they asserted. “While Quebec is resolutely committed to achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, an emergency decree could compromise our efforts to produce green energy. It would be unacceptable for the federal government to jeopardize the achievement of this objective. »
Citing these issues, the Quebec government indicated to the federal government that it would not participate in the consultations initiated last month. Launching legal challenges is still on the table, although the missive does not mention it. “We are not ruling out any measures for the moment in the case,” Benoit Charette’s office told Devoir.
Even though it promised it for several years, the Quebec government has never presented an integrated strategy for the protection of Quebec's 13 caribou populations. Currently, 11 of these are considered “at risk” of becoming extinct.
In April, François Legault's government announced its intention to launch pilot protection projects in Gaspésie, Charlevoix and to the north of the Caribou-Forestiers-de-Manouane-Manicouagan biodiversity reserve. These projects are also subject to consultation, until October.
Also read
- The Bloc implores Ottawa to delay the caribou decree
- Ottawa will impose a “decree” to protect Quebec caribou