The threat of a federal decree still remains in negotiations between Ottawa and Quebec to arrive at a protection plan for woodland caribou.
Passing through Montérégie on Monday, the federal Minister of the Environment, Steven Guilbeault, however indicated that negotiations were on the right track. We have had some disagreements with the Quebec Government, but in recent weeks, the Quebec Government has returned to the negotiating table to seek agreement.
Steven Guilbeault reiterated that this is what he wanted in the beginning.
Procedures started
On the other hand, he added, Damocles ’sword stays in place and time runs out.
We will need to do that quickly because, in conjunction with the negotiation process, I have taken steps that will lead me to ask the Ottawa Council of Ministers to issue an ordinance.
That’s not what I want to dohe was careful to specify, it added the law is plan B. Plan A is to reach an agreement with the Quebec government.
The mandate in question would be issued under the provisions of the federal Species and Risk Act, which allows Ottawa to put in place measures to protect the caribou habitat in Quebec.
Ottawa is asking Quebec for a plan to ensure residential protection, but it has not yet deemed enough the measures brought to the table by the Legault government so far.
Difficult balance
Since this showdown began in Ottawa, Premier François Legault has reiterated that his intention is to find a balance between caribou protection and logging.
For Minister Guilbeault, however, it is not the maintenance of logging that will determine how we can protect the big deer. What matters is what the experts think, the scientists, whether they are from the Quebec Government, the university scientists, the scientists from the federal government. And the current scientific consensus is what is being done in Quebec – I’m not saying nothing is being done – but what is being done is not enough.
Caribou of disputed jurisdiction
Prime Minister Legault, for his part, has several times argued that it is a provincial jurisdiction. On the contrary, Steven Guilbeault answers, according to whom the question about endangered species is in shared jurisdiction, as demonstrated by the enactment of a federal decree protecting the chorus frog habitat in Longueuil, last November.
Mr. Guilbeault maintains, however, that the federal government is prepared to financially support Quebec, as it did for Alberta, to protect an increasingly uncertain caribou population.
Logging is the main reason for this uncertainty, especially because of logging roads that promote the movement of natural caribou predators such as bears and wolves.
Source: Radio-Canada
