The cumulative effect also serves to highlight many initiatives that have already been taken, in the spirit of what was raised by the speaker who preceded you. In the case of Assinica Park, for example, did we wait for a decree or a plan from the Quebec government? The answer is no. A park was established over ten years ago, and this project alone subtracted 140,000 cubic metres of timber from allowable cuts, the equivalent of the measures in the decree concerning the Val-d'Or herd. It's working, since the caribou population has grown from 500 to 800 in the space of 10 years. Obviously, these measures are already having an effect on the quantity of available wood.
In the northern sector of La Sarre, in the indirect perimeter of Val-d'Or, our company took the initiative of subtracting areas from industrial activity. That had an impact corresponding to 30,000 cubic metres of wood, and the caribou population is doing well in this sector. This work was carried out in conjunction with CPAWS, the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, First Nations and Ontario neighbours.
Nature abhors a vacuum, and there are many extremely credible and principled initiatives in place. There are indeed conservation measures, and they vary. In this case, as far as the application of the decree in the Val-d'Or area is concerned, activities related to mining, energy, ATVs and cottages can all be maintained, but the focus is on the forest industry. In other words, the decree acts not as a glass bell, but rather as a sieve. The focus is on wood processing, and yet, that is inactive.
Thus, all these measures overlap and add up. Invariably, if the decree is implemented as currently formulated, it will prevent the construction of tens of thousands of homes. In the case of Abitibi-Témiscamingue, the wood processed in the Val-d'Or area is shipped to Toronto every week, where it is used to build houses. The collateral effect is major, indeed. All you have to do is add up all the measures—those put in place over a decade ago, those already in place and the Quebec government's interim measures—to understand that we're not standing idly by in the face of the declining caribou population. Many credible things are being done today.