Thank you, Mr. Chair.
I would like to extend my greetings to all members of the standing committee, as well as to the other witnesses.
My name is Alain Branchaud and I am a biologist and director general of the Quebec branch of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, or CPAWS Quebec. I also worked for about 10 years on Environment Canada's species at risk program, specifically on critical habitat protection.
Our organization's primary mission is protecting public land and biodiversity, including species at risk such as caribou.
In 2023, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change recommended to the Governor in Council that an order be issued under section 61 of the Species at Risk Act to protect all parts of the critical habitat of the boreal caribou population located in Quebec and Ontario. The Governor in Council turned down the minister's recommendation. We thought that was a good decision on the part of the Governor in Council. The political and economic repercussions of such an order would have been more detrimental to the protection of caribou and, ultimately, to the Species at Risk Act.
In 2024, the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada raised the issue again and recommended to the Governor in Council that an emergency order be issued under section 80 of the Species at Risk Act to protect three caribou populations in Quebec. This time, the Governor in Council responded positively to the minister's recommendation. Again, we think this is a good decision by the Governor in Council.
The emergency order proposed by the Canadian government is justified and measured. First and foremost, it's scientifically justified. For the three targeted populations, the rate of habitat disturbance is critical. Demographic trends indicate a significant decline in recent years, and activities recognized as threats to the survival and recovery of the species continue to be carried out on the ground.
The order is also justified from a biocultural perspective. Caribou are a species of great cultural and spiritual importance to many indigenous communities. Restoring them is essential to maintaining the culture, way of life and traditional practices of these communities.
What's more, the order is legally justified. Before intervening outside federal lands, the federal government must ensure that it acts in conjunction with other federal and provincial legislation in force in areas where a province or territory is not adequately fulfilling its fiduciary role to protect the species. To issue an emergency order, it must ensure that there is an imminent threat to the survival or recovery of the species. All three conditions are met in this case.
Lastly, the scope of the order is measured, covering only three of 15 caribou populations in Quebec, as well as a small proportion of the designated critical habitat. The anticipated socio-economic impact is certainly significant at the local level, but limited in the Quebec forestry sector as a whole. Solutions exist to ensure a fair transition and support for the communities that will be affected.
What is important to note is that the partial caribou protection strategy introduced by Quebec on April 30 has a lot of potential and, with major adjustments, could contribute significantly to the recovery of the species in Quebec. Unfortunately, Quebec has still not presented a clear timeline for its implementation. Given the urgent need to act for the three populations targeted by the order, it is fully justified and necessary for the federal government to adopt this emergency order. When Quebec's caribou protection strategy was tabled, CPAWS once again called on the federal minister to intervene quickly to protect populations on the brink of collapse, particularly those in Pipmuakan.
In order to facilitate a fair transition for the communities affected by the order, we recommend that the Canadian government show its hand and fast-track negotiations for a nature agreement with Quebec, as it did for Nova Scotia, Yukon and British Columbia. This potential agreement would quickly put all the stakeholders in solution mode.
The boreal caribou population is found in a number of other areas in Canada. The federal intervention does not necessarily mean that Quebec is falling short compared to other provinces or territories. Based on the reports published under section 63 of the Species at Risk Act, the federal government has all the information it needs to justify targeted interventions elsewhere in Canada where other caribou populations are on the brink of collapse.
CPAWS Quebec will soon be submitting a brief to support the adoption of the emergency measure as part of the consultations and will be making targeted recommendations to improve its scope.
Thank you for your attention.