Parks Canada is proposing to kill dozens of white-tailed deer at a historic site near Quebec City, saying the deer population on the island presents a threat to rare plants and the safety of employees flying in.

In a notice outlining its plans for a deer cull on Grosse-Île, Parks Canada says its attempts to scare the deer away from a runway on the island aren’t working.

“The multiple visual and audible scaring methods, such as continuous inspections of the runway in all-terrain vehicles before landings and takeoffs, and negative conditioning with the use of paint markers with white chalk balls, must be more and more intense, as white-tailed deer react little or not at all, and some return to the edge of the runway as soon as the staff leaves,” Parks Canada wrote.

However, Sophie Gaillard, director of animal advocacy and legal and governmental affairs at the Montreal SPCA, says Parks Canada should first consider non-lethal options to deal with the deer like physical barriers or sterilization.

“Unfortunately, what we see, and this is at the municipal level, at the provincial level, at the federal level in Canada, is a tendency to default to lethal wildlife management practices,” Gaillard said.

“As soon as there’s an issue that comes up with animals, they’re considered nuisances, they’re hindering human activity, we, by default, will resort to culls or other lethal method, when in fact other methods exist in order to solve human-wildlife conflicts.”

Parks Canada’s proposal centres on Grosse-Île, an island in the St. Lawrence River about 48 kilometres east of Quebec City. In 1832, a quarantine station was built on the island to receive passengers on ships from Europe after diseases arriving on the ships killed many Quebec City residents.

The height of the quarantine station was in 1847, when Irish immigrants fleeing famine aboard ships often plagued with diseases like typhus arrived on Grosse-Île. Records show 8,691 patients were treated in the hospital on the island that year.

An estimated 5,424 passengers never made it to Quebec City and are buried on Grosse-Île.

During the Second World War, the quarantine station was turned into a research facility where scientists conducted secret germ warfare experiments with bacteria like anthrax.

In 1974, the quarantine station was recognized as a national historic site and is now the Irish Memorial Historic Site, open to visitors between May and October.  

In a notice published in the Canada Gazette, Parks Canada says it wants Grosse-Île to be added to the list of sites covered by the National Historic Sites of Canada Order. It says that would give it the legal power to take the steps necessary to carry out the cull through a controlled hunt.

A separate management plan for the island on the Impact Assessment Agency of Canada’s website says the white-tailed deer made their way to Grosse-Île in the 1980s from a nearby island. With no predators and no hunting allowed on the island, the number of deer has grown over the years, despite two previous operations to reduce the population in 2003 and 2012.

Parks Canada estimates there are now 89 to 95 deer on a 1.8-square-kilometre island that it says can only support around eight deer.

In addition to the hazard posed by deer wandering onto the aircraft runway, a study by Parks Canada found they are taking a toll on the vegetation.

“The analysis determined that overgrazing and trampling by white-tailed deer were the main threats to the plant species present on Grosse-Île,” Parks Canada wrote. 

“The site is known for its rare vascular flora, which includes two species endemic to Quebec (Victorin’s gentian and Victorin’s water-hemlock), one endangered tree species (butternut) … and 13 species that are either vulnerable to harvest, vulnerable or threatened in Quebec or likely to be vulnerable or threatened.”

Parks Canada plans to draft rules governing the use of firearms on the site and it said Quebec’s Environment Ministry plans to repeal the provincial regulation that prohibits hunting on the island.

Keean Nembhard, press secretary to Environment Minister Julie Dabrusin, said the minister supports Parks Canada’s plan.

“Grosse-Île is a historic site of great heritage and commemorative significance for many communities,” he wrote in a statement.

“The measures being considered are intended to ensure responsible wildlife management in order to protect the landscapes, ecosystems and historic character of the site for future generations.”

Green Party Leader Elizabeth May said reducing the number of deer in a national park is sometimes necessary to balance an ecosystem. However, she said Parks Canada has run into problems in the past trying to cull deer, such as its decision to hire marksmen in helicopters to reduce the population in Gulf Islands National Park.

“The first place to go is to the local First Nations and ask if they’re willing to help because they have hunting rights already,” she said.

In addition to an open season to bring the population down to about nine deer, May pointed to non-lethal alternatives such as fencing off areas or contraceptive sterilization. 

News of the proposed deer cull came as a surprise to Bernard Généreux, Conservative MP for the area. 

“I understand that this can be a security issue and to propose to First Nations to harvest them is fine, but in my opinion resident hunters in the nearby islands like Île-aux-Grues should have access to the same hunting privileges,” he said.

Gaillard said Parks Canada should have acted earlier to manage the deer population.

“If that island could only sustain eight or nine deer, then perhaps when the deer population exceeded 10, something should have been done,” she said, rather than now having to “drastically reduce the population, essentially overnight.”

Gaillard said Quebec’s Civil Code recognizes animals as sentient beings and previous deer culls in areas such as the Montreal suburb of Longueuil have triggered controversy.

“I wouldn’t be surprised if people mobilized to oppose this cull,” she said.

The 30-day public consultation on Parks Canada’s proposal runs until April 6.