Caribou plan will kill jobs, northwest communities argue
Group accuses province of failing to consult with local residents, businesses
EDMONTON Councillor sin six northwestern Alberta municipalities are worried a “cookie-cutter” solution to dwindling caribou populations would cause a serious drag on the local forestry industry.
Each province and territory is required to develop caribou range plans by October, which the federal government will then adopt or reject. The plans are to help the threatened species’ low populations recover. Preliminary plans from the provincial government set aside 1.8 million hectares for permanent protection in Alberta’s northwest corner.
After learning of the plan in 2016, councillors from six northwestern municipalities formed the Northwest Species at Risk Committee (NWSAR) to develop an alternative plan which doesn’t involve permanently protected areas.
Earlier this week NWSAR released a 117- page draft report which says the province’s proposed plan would result in 640 lost jobs in the forestry sector and a 38-per-cent reduction in land base if required to leave lands undisturbed. There would be other impacts on the oil and gas and agriculture sectors.
Lisa Wardley, NWSAR chairperson and deputy reeve for Mackenzie County, said there has been very little consultation from the province with local residents about the plan, explaining they felt blindsided by the announcement.
“We tried to get the province and government to start doing local consultations and realized that wasn’t working, so we realized we needed to do it ourselves,” Wardley said about the decision to form an alternative plan.
“I’ll be honest, it was kind of a deer-in-the-headlights kind of moment where we needed to become caribou experts.”
The province denies the range plans are being developed without consultation, saying the process is being done in a “collaborative, balanced and meaningful way,” according to a written statement from Brent Wittmeier, press secretary for Environment and Parks Minister Shannon Phillips.
“We are working closely with stakeholders throughout northwest Alberta, including forestry and energy, municipal and indigenous communities.”
The statement said the “partially complete draft report released by the Northwest Species at Risk Committee has been undertaken in isolation, without dialogue with the province,” and “appears to be based on inaccurate assumptions and unstated information sources.”
The statement said the NWSAR’s assumption all caribou ranges will be made into parks is not true.
“Protected areas were strategically chosen, in part, for their lack of industrial activity.”
The region doesn’t have the type of development and economy southern Alberta does, and Wardley said the province’s preliminary plans do not reflect these differences.
“We just want to be able to survive,” said Wardley. “And we want to be able to thrive in the north and the northern part of the province.
“They want a made-in-Alberta plan. Well you know what? We want a made-in-northwest Alberta plan because what may work in the eastern part of the province or what may work down south may not work here.”
The province’s draft range plans are expected to be complete by fall for consultation with the public.