Alberta suspends caribou protection plan, asks for assistance from Ottawa
EDMONTON — Alberta is suspending portions of its draft plan to protect threatened woodland caribou, saying more research needs to be done and that Ottawa needs to help out.
Environment Minister Shannon Phillips told the house Monday the province is acting on concerns about the economic impacts of the protection plan.
“The federal Species at Risk Act is an extremely inflexible instrument that has already had negative economic consequences (in Alberta),” said Phillips. “We are going to do our best to make sure that we protect jobs on this.”
She said she has sent that message in a letter to her federal counterpart, Catherine McKenna.