I'm in favor of the Caribou…

I'm in favor of the Caribou Section 11 Agreement.

Balances the protection and recovery of boreal caribou and its habitat, the social and cultural well-being of northern and Indigenous communities, and the economic prosperity of Ontario businesses and the communities that depend on them today and in the future.

What is Good

o The CA will cover a 5-year term.
o Speaks to the importance of social, economic, indigenous, values.
o Recognizes ON framework and actions
o Speaks to revising provincial and federal policy
o Pragmatic and not overly prescriptive (eg details to follow)
o Will provide Federal funding to Ontario, money for science based studies, caribou habitat
improvement.
o Reduce the reliance on Parks which do not encourage dynamic habitat management.
o Support for FSC accreditation.

Bad

o Speaks to the 65/35 federal disturbance threshold ( in the preamble and implies it elsewhere). This curtails the amount of area we can put in a plan and ignores the age of the forests that are there.
o No explicit commitment to report on the socio-economic impacts
o Limited recognition to Climate Change impacts to Caribou
o Promotes protected areas, with emphasis on regulated areas (more parks) as opposed to OECM’s (Other Effective Conservation Measures like our Caribou DCHS)