As previewed in the weekly iPolitics lookahead, ENVIRONMENT AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT members will hold a special session to discuss launching a full-scale parliamentary probe into the ongoing cross-jurisdictional dispute over the existential threats to Quebec’s boreal caribou — and, more specifically, the move by Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault to start the paperwork required to issue an emergency federal order to “protect the habitat of the three most at-risk populations in Canada” in the regions of Val-d’Or, Charlevoix, and Pipmuacan, which could result in new restrictions on “logging and road network expansions.” (12 p.m.)
While consultations on the draft order were initially set to wrap up this week, Guilbeault has already extended the deadline by four weeks — which, according to his office, was “in response to “requests from Quebec’s Indigenous communities and stakeholders,” and, he noted, “will also provide an additional opportunity for the Government of Quebec to present a comprehensive strategy” to bring in its own protective measures, which could eliminate the need for a federal order.
According to La Presse, the formal request for a mid-recess meeting came from the Bloc Québécois with the support of their Liberal colleagues, with Guilbeault likely to be the first witness invited to appear before the committee, although as yet, it’s not clear whether the proposed study would get underway immediately, or be put on hold until regular proceedings resume next month.