Environment committee  Not that I'm aware of, no. The Lac-Saint-Jean region is one of the regions that cuts off virtually all the potential for softwood lumber.

Environment committee  Absolutely.

Environment committee  That's exactly right.

Environment committee  It would involve establishing measures to reduce the economic impact, for example, by implementing measures for the movement of wood, silvicultural investments or the harvesting of certain stands currently abandoned, to enable new sources of supply to be found for plants such as Boisaco.

Environment committee  This commission would certainly have an economic dimension, but it would still have to produce a credible plan for the conservation of boreal caribou.

Environment committee  Absolutely. The caribou problem shows that too much pressure is currently being put on the forest. We have to find ways of making a temporal transition to sustainable harvesting levels.

Environment committee  According to the latest research and simulations, no, the caribou will always remain in place. Climate change is coming. The caribou will have to adapt, but it's still within the climate envelope that maintains the boreal caribou.

Environment committee  I'll give you a concrete example. The Capitale-Nationale region was the subject of a pilot project to establish regional wood production strategies. An economic analysis of harvestable wood was done. For the Capitale-Nationale region, from Portneuf to Charlevoix, it was concluded that 30% of the forestry potential was not economically harvestable.

Environment committee  In 2013, Quebec did pass a new act called the Sustainable Forest Development Act. In that act, consideration of biodiversity and development, which was called “ecosystemic”, was at the heart of the new regime. In 2016, Quebec consistently adopted a process to develop a strategy to conserve biodiversity, including caribou.

Environment committee  The federal government could set up this table, but without Quebec, it would lack the forestry data to be able to simulate these elements.

Environment committee  You're right, the caribou issue is one of disturbance, and that includes natural disturbances. The challenge is that the level of disturbance associated with the logging, in addition to natural disturbances, exceeds the tolerable threshold for caribou. General forest rejuvenation is the big challenge, and it's also an economic one, by the way.

Environment committee  Thank you, Mr. Chair. Ladies and gentlemen members of the committee, I'd like to say hello, and thank you for this opportunity to meet with you. I am a biologist and forest engineer, and also a professor of integrated forest management at Université Laval. I'm a member of the Équipe de rétablissement du caribou forestier du Québec, where I represent Nature Québec.