Experts say Quebec wind turbine project threatens caribou habitat

The developers of a project to install wind turbines in a habitat that's home to a vulnerable caribou herd in central Quebec say they intend to proceed, despite reservations from provincial and federal experts.

Renewable energy company Boralex is partnering with Hydro-Québec and Energir on the project in the Charlevoix region, which would see the installation of 68 wind turbines. 

Seventeen of the turbines would be on land set aside by the province for a small and vulnerable herd of woodland caribou.

"The issue with wind turbines is that it's a permanent disturbance. It's going to be there for several decades," Pierre-Olivier Boudreault, director of conservation at La Société pour la nature et les parcs (SNAP Québec), told CBC News in an interview Monday.

"Any additional disturbance, any additional human footprint on the habitat will definitely not help this population to recover," Boudreault said.

Fragile herd

The herd had only 16 caribou when they were captured and put in an enclosure by provincial wildlife officials in 2022 to protect them. Their habitat has been gradually disappearing for decades due to forestry and mining in the region.

The herd has recovered slightly and now counts 39 caribou. The province has pledged to restore their habitat.

"It's a population that's fragile because they don't have any exchange with other populations. So their isolation makes them really threatened," Boudreault said. 

Boralex has maintained that the project would have little or no impact on the caribou, despite concerns from provincial and federal wildlife experts. It has submitted a compromise plan to the province that would reduce the number of wind turbines in the protected area by six.

But the company says taking all 17 of the proposed turbines out of the caribou habitat would make the project "non-viable."

Ministry says proposed compromise is 'erroneous'

"We are sensitive to the precarious situation of the caribou," Boralex's director of communications, Katheryne Coulombe, said in an email on Monday.

"Since the territory targeted by the development of the project is already more than 98 per cent disturbed by forestry and vacation activities, the currently proposed project would not generate additional pressure on caribou habitat," Coulombe said.

"The territory targeted for the development of the project is located outside the areas targeted by the woodland caribou recovery plans developed by both the provincial and federal governments," she said.

In a document responding to Boralex's compromise proposal, experts from the Environment Ministry called the company's explanations "succinct, imprecise or erroneous" and asked Boralex to go back to the drawing board.

Habitat loss 'cumulative'

"It's not necessarily a huge project, but we have to think in terms of cumulative impact," Boudreault said.

"The population has been impacted mainly by forestry over the past decades, but also energy and mining projects," he said.

"I often give the example that we kind of have a bathtub with a hole in it," Boudreault said.

"This project is making the hole bigger. Maybe it's just slightly bigger, but it's not the good direction in which we need to go," he said. 

He said the climate crisis can't be solved in ways that have a negative impact on biodiversity.

"That doesn't make any sense. We have to tackle these two issues together," Boudreault said.

The Boralex spokesperson said they are still still in talks with government authorities to "find a balance between the viability of the project and the protection of biodiversity," which could include "mitigation and compensation measures in the most significant areas."

The project is subject to review from the province's environmental review board, the Bureau d'audiences publiques sur l'environnement (BAPE).