

The finding, released by Environment Canada on Friday covers 10 herds in the Southern Mountain population. They are all smaller than 100 animals and continue to decline. Seven are in British Columbia and the rest are all or partly in Alberta.

"Immediate intervention is required to allow for eventual recovery," says a department document.

The finding obliges the environment minister to ask cabinet to issue an emergency protection order under the Species At Risk Act if the two provinces don't do enough to remove threats to the herds' recovery.




"In the short term, what it means is that we need to go and have conversations with the governments of British Columbia and Alberta and relevant stakeholders to discuss how we actually move forward," he said. "There is a high degree of urgency."


"If we don't act, somebody will go to court and the courts will certainly find the minister has a requirement to go to cabinet."

Another finding released earlier this week said the provinces are failing to adequately protect critical habitat for woodland caribou as well. It concluded the provinces don't require their regulatory bodies to follow federal environmental legislation.

Friday's release acknowledges Alberta and B.C. are taking some steps to help the herds, but concludes they aren't doing enough.



"We are in a situation where the courts are beginning to lose their patience with the federal government," she said. "That is why Alberta must demonstrate progress."

Phillips was just back from leading an industry-heavy delegation to Ottawa to discuss restoring caribou habitat. The federal government promised financial help for a socio-economic study and emergency management actions such as caribou maternity pens and wolf culls.

She acknowledged that decades of logging and drilling have left some caribou ranges unlikely to be able to support healthy herds for decades to come. But other herds are in better shape.

"It is not true that all is lost," she said.




"We went through about 25 years of the previous government doing precisely nothing -- sweet tweet -- on this file."