Greenpeace brings protest to Minister’s front door

Greenpeace cares about caribou.

The environmental activists were in Thunder Bay on Monday, the tail end of a three-day visit, protesting what they say is the province’s failure to act to protect the threatened species.

Catharine Grant, a forest campaigner with the international organization, said the group of five protesters brought their message to the doorstep of Liberal Minister of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry Michael Gravelle’s Van Norman Street Constituency office to let he province know they’re not happy with progress to date on what they say was a promise from the premier.

"In 2007 the (Dalton) McGuinty government promised they would protect the species. But that hasn’t happened yet. They’ve got a year left in their mandate. Time is ticking and we expect them to take action right away to fulfill that promise," Grant said, adding the Far North Act, given royal assent on Monday by the lieutenant governor, doesn’t go far enough and only protects animals in certain parts of the province.

A year ago the provincial ministry of natural resource outlined a woodland caribou conservation plan that says as much as 40 to 50 per cent of the animal’s traditional territory in Northern Ontario has been lost since the late 1800s.

While the sub-Arctic dwelling caribou aren’t threatened, the forest-dwelling ones who call the boreal forest home are in danger.

Unlike moose and white-tailed deer, who stick to a relatively small area, caribou traverse between 200 and 4,000 square kilometers a year, leading them into heavily forested areas.

Grant said the province needs to ensure the caribou have safety zones where development and nature don’t mix.

"Right now they need to set aside some areas of intact caribou habitat," Grant said. "The species has been wiped off of 50 per cent of its range in Ontario. So they need to set aside some areas so that caribou can survive.

"And they need to do that in a way that’s not actually going to shut down mills. So they need to find wood from other less sensitive areas."

Grant added there are a number of companies who have thrown their support behind Greenpeace’s caribous protection plan – notably Tembec and Abitibi-Bowater – but said there are still companies out there that put profit ahead of protection.

Yves Fricot, general counsel for the Buchanan Group, which Grant did not name, said his company is complying to legislation set under provincial and federal legislation, adding company policy is to not get involved in a war of words with activist groups.