Friday, July 31, 2020, Morning — Committee A
We have, definitely, under the section 11 agreement with the federal government, been engaging on herd management plans for the remainder of the herds in B.C. So the member is right on that. As far as an analysis of how much additional protected areas might be necessary for caribou habitat, we, through our scientists, are looking at the southern groups. There's already large core habitat protected. There's nothing being contemplated on the scale that was witnessed in the partnership agreement in the northeast. There might be some subtle changes, some boundary changes required. In some instances, that might mean changing boundaries based on best available science and removing areas that are under protection now and other circumstances. It might mean expanding those boundaries slightly, depending on the science that we've been able to accumulate in the last number of years. So nothing on scale that was in the partnership agreement — subtle changes. It's important to remember that in the areas that are protected right now, there are habitat restoration activities ongoing, because, as we canvassed yesterday, many areas, especially in the Tweedsmuir area, within the caribou habitat protection lands are heavily impacted by the circumstances like wildfires. So habitat restoration efforts are underway. Just to the comments the member made on the efforts in the northeast and the imminent threat by the federal government — yeah, it wasn't until 2018 that the federal government actually issued an imminent threat order and that caribou were at the risk of extirpation in many of the herds. When we had been working towards, with the federal government, since 2017…. But obviously, the efforts previously weren't good enough. We weren't going to roll the dice with the federal government. The potential risks were just much too great to the timber-harvesting land base and to the communities that were dependent on forestry. the efforts previously weren't good enough. So we weren't going to roll the dice with the federal government. The potential risks were just much too great to the timber-harvesting land base and to the communities that were dependent on forestry.
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