Lac Simon requests judicial review of $40 million Ottawa-Quebec caribou deal

The Council of Lac Simon Anishinabe Nation announced Wednesday that it filed for a judicial review of the federal government’s agreement to provide Quebec with $40 million for boreal caribou conservation. A judicial review is a request for the Federal Court to review a decision by the government to ensure that it was legal and followed proper procedures and policies. The deal between Ottawa and Quebec was signed on June 29. Lac Simon is located in western Quebec, some 400 km northwest of Ottawa. In a statement, Lac Simon’s council described the deal as Ottawa “reneg[ing] on an understanding it reached with the community two years ago.” In 2024, former environment minister Steven Guilbeault said it was necessary for Ottawa to impose an emergency order under the Species at Risk Act to protect boreal caribou habitat from the “imminent threat” of extinction.  Lac Simon’s council – along with the councils of several other First Nations – applauded the move. However, Guilbeault’s threat didn’t sit well with the Quebec government.  Yves-François Blanchette, leader of the Bloc Québécois, told La Presse in French that “Quebec’s forests are not under federal jurisdiction; they are the exclusive jurisdiction of Quebec. It is only within this framework, in both environmental and purely economic terms, that a solution can be found to the current crisis affecting woodland caribou.“ Benoit Charette, currently Quebec’s minister of Transport and Sustainable Mobility, was the province’s minister for the Environment at the time Guilbeault threatened the emergency order. He called federal government intervention an “arrogant” move, and said that a federal decree to protect boreal caribou would have dire economic effects for thousands of workers in Quebec regions dependent on forestry. Ottawa didn’t impose the emergency order. Rather, on June 30, it announced the previous day’s agreement to provide $25-million over five years toward caribou conservation, plus $15-million over five years to support Indigenous efforts to protect caribou and their habitat. “The Government of Canada is supporting the actions that will be implemented by Quebec for the recovery and protection of the species on its territory,” said Environment, Climate Change and Nature Minister Julie Dabrusin. “Together, in collaboration with Indigenous peoples, we can ensure the survival of this iconic species.” Lac Simon’s council described this deal in their press release as being “secretly negotiated,” and called the pledged $25 million “effectively a large cash reward to Quebec for destroying our Aboriginal right to caribou which Algonquin people hunted for thousands of years.” The Lac Simon argued that Quebec promised a habitat-protection plan for caribou in 2016 and has never delivered. “When the animals’ survival in Lac Simon’s territory became doubtful,” the statement said,  “Quebec captured all the wild caribou and caged them. Today only seven caribou remain in those cages, and Quebec has no plan to rewild them.” Read more: Innu Nation forum slams Quebec government for inaction to protect caribou Ottawa dragging its feet on protecting endangered caribou: B.C. conservation groups According to Lac Simon, the Quebec government was supposed to have published a caribou-protection strategy five years ago, and is receiving another five-year grace period along with federal funding to complete that strategy. “The Federal government is subsidizing Quebec’s effort to delay implementing protections for caribou until there are no caribou left to protect,” the release argues. Chief Lucien Wabanonik noted that caribou has been central to his people for thousands of years. “Their survival is our right under the Constitution,” he said. “Backtracking on the Minister’s emergency order to recover wild caribou and paying Quebec to cage them instead is a stab in the back and again proves this government’s extreme disrespect for Indigenous rights.” Lac Simon’s council has hired a Toronto-based law firm to file a judicial review in Federal Court, and they’ve also called upon University of Ottawa law Professor Amir Attaran, who works as legal counsel to the Algonquin Anishinabeg Nation Tribal Council, to support their case. The government of Canada has yet to acknowledge or respond to the request for judicial review. Continue Reading