https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Red Rock Chief won’t be “force-fed” conservation plan that jeopardizes development, threatens communities
The province’s rollout of a woodland caribou recovery strategy in northwestern Ontario threatens the gains made by First Nations in natural resource development, said the chief of the Red Rock Indian Band.
Matthew Dupuis and a group of protesters were taking to the road to delay traffic on the Trans-Canada Highway at the Nipigon Bridge on May 29.
They take issue with Ontario’s Woodland Caribou Conservation Plan to create corridors for woodland caribou that they say is potentially devastating to communities and industry along the north shore of Lake Superior.
Despite the change in provincial government, Dupuis said Queen’s Park continues to push the caribou recovery strategy, particularly at the forest management planning level, in an effort to change the “landscape of this area and how it’s managed.”
The Red Rock Indian Band is leading the fight against the caribou strategy. The band hosted a town hall meeting of the research they’ve gathered and its potential socioeconomic implications and presented it to an audience of 200 in Nipigon on May 10.
For the rest of this article: https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/industry-news/forestry/northwest-first-nations-protest-provincial-caribou-strategy-1479695