Written by Rushanthi Kesunathan, Journal Staff
Alberta’s dwindling caribou population is getting three new task forces in an effort to support both a working landscape and caribou recovery.
MLA for Bonnyville-Cold Lake-St. Paul David Hanson will serve as one of the three MLAs on the task force. The three task forces have a total of 42 members. Dan Williams, MLA for Peace River, and Martin Long, MLA for West Yellowhead will join Hanson.
“It’s an important role for our area and I’m happy to be appointed as the chair for the Cold Lake sub-region,” Hanson said. “We had an introductory meeting (this week) but haven’t got to the meat of the matter yet.”
Members of the task forces include representatives of municipalities, indigenous communities, industry, recreational users and environmental non-government organization, according to a Nov. 4 government news release. The task force held its first meeting in Edmonton.
“We’ve got a very diverse group of people at the table to discuss from an industry, recreational and environmental standpoint,” Hanson explained.
Environment and Parks Minister James Nixon says he has created three sub-regional task force teams to help the threatened caribou population recover.
“I’m happy to advance this important government platform commitment and work toward solutions that are practical, balanced and grounded in socio-economic analysis and respect for our land and biodiversity,” Nixon said in the release.
Alberta is home to 15 caribou herds.
To begin, the task forces provide recommendations to government regarding sub-regional planning for Cold Lake, Bistcho Lake and Upper Smokey planning areas. This will address recovery outcomes for the Bistcho, Cold Lake, Redrock-Prairie Creek and Narraway caribou ranges.
The caribou sub-regional task forces will advise government regarding the sub-regional planning process to ensure local input is considered in the development of the draft plans; ensure that sub-regional plans, including caribou range plans, are subject to a comprehensive social, environmental and economic impact assessment; and review and consider the Draft Provincial Woodland Caribou Range Plan (Dec. 2017) in the context of more holistic sub-regional planning, according to the release.
Recommendations for the Cold Lake sub-regional plan will be drafted by the end of March 2020, reads the release.
Following the completion of work in the three areas, the task forces will provide advice on the development of the remaining sub-regional plans and affected caribou ranges.
The creation of the sub-regional caribou task forces fulfills one of the Alberta government’s election commitments to form a caribou range task force, according to provincial release.
