A woodland caribou population in serious trouble. The overall drop is from over 90,000 animals to just under 40,000 in a little over a decade. Some herds are at a tiny fraction of their numbers a few years ago.
The fairly obvious reason: an increase in predation - especially from invading coyotes which are not native to the island - and other pressures from things like human development. Those reasons , especially the predation one, are acknowledged in the news releases describing government's response:
$15.3 million.
Five years.
To develop a strategy - that can be implemented after the situation is five years further developed - to figure out.
Not we have a strategy or that it will take us a few weeks or months since we have already been studying this, but rather we will now study the problem to confirm there is a problem and then tell you what we will do.
Five years from now.
And that's in addition to two years and $3.7 million to study the decline already.
If the same rate of decline obtains, there will be something like 20,000 or fewer caribou left by the time they finish the study.
At that point the Do Nothings will probably announce a study to determine if the study that was just concluded actually had any impact or if things just kept getting worse on their own.
And according to the news release continuing to study rather than studying and then acting is part of their "strategy".
Strategy for what?
Doing Nothing, evidently.
And it's not like that should be a surprise.
Just remember the throne speech from a few years ago telling us what the Do Nothing philosophy was all about: and there shall be plans and plans for plans and plans to integrate the planning for plans.
