Councillors worry province’s caribou plan will hurt forestry

Councillors in 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 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.

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.

“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.

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.

The province’s draft range plans are expected to be complete by fall for consultation with the public.