Forestry industry not happy with rationale

Posted By STEPHEN UHLER

Posted 2 months ago

The forestry industry continues to react with outrage over the provincial government's decision to accept a report recommending logging operations be severely curtailed within Algonquin Park.

Industry and community representatives dispute claims by the province the report is the product of careful consultation and strikes a balance between protecting the park's natural values and maintaining forestry operations.

Instead, they say it ignores their concerns, has little to do with ecological or environmental rationale and instead serves political aims which are leading towards the elimination of timber operations within the park.

Jamie Lim, president and CEO of the Ontario Forest Industries Association, said logging only occurs within 1.5 per cent of the park's total area, and already local lumber companies leave a light footprint on the park itself. Yet this is the area the government seems to feel needs to be cut back even further.

She said there hasn't been any reasons given by Queen's Park why forest operations have to be reduced, nor any scientific rationale to back it. Instead, she said it is apparent the province is being influenced by special interest groups like CPAWS (Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society) which has been calling for the abolishment of all logging within the park.

"This was a process that had a predetermined conclusion right from the outset," Ms. Lim said, with the province ignoring concerns forest companies and communities have been expressing over the past two years that such a move would devastate them.

"For the provincial government to say that this was built on consultations with the forest industry is ludicrous," she said.

"What just blows my mind is how a government in the middle of the worst recession in decades could do this.

"The province's revenues are down 48 per cent, and they are threatening an industry which generates $134 million for the economy and supports 2,800 families. Why would any government jeopardize that?"

The "Joint Proposal for Lightening the Ecological Footprint of Logging in Algonquin Park," submitted to the province at the end of October, has been in development since February 2008 by the Ontario Parks Board and the Algonquin Forestry Authority Board, along with other key stakeholders.

The proposal recommends expanding the total area protected from logging from 341,495 hectares to 371,238 hectares, which would cover 49 per cent of the total park area. This would take away 30,000 hectares of timber from forestry producers.

Ms. Lim said such moves are likely just the beginning, and criticized the government for being so shortsighted.

"This isn't just hurting now, but will be diminishing our future opportunities for years to come," she said. More and more customers within the housing industry will be asking for Ontario wood, as it is so accessible, and yet the government decides to look at reducing the supply.

"Last I've looked, people still need forest products," Ms. Lim said. "Where are they going to get wood? Are we going to import it now? Is forestry supposed to be beneath us?"

The report, if the government fully embraces it, is worrying local forestry producers, which depend on a stable wood supply from Algonquin Park to remain viable.

John McRae of McRae Lumber said it seems the government comes and talks to people after it has made a decision.

"They come to inform us. You can't consider this as consultation," he said.

"You also can't keep removing access to land for logging and expect the forest sector to sustain and maintain itself, or grow to take advantage of new opportunities."

Dana Shaw of Herb Shaw and Sons, whose company has been operating in the region for more than 160 years, said he has advised the government any reduction in the area available for forestry in the park will have a negative economic impact on the forest industry as a whole.

"Although the government asked us for our positions and we responded, none of our concerns were taken into account," he said.

Madawaska Valley Mayor John Hildebrandt said after repeated concerns from forest companies over the past two years, after resolutions from communities, and after various economic assessments that warn of negative economic impacts associated with this government project, it is clear that the government and the Minister of Natural Resources are not listening.

Ms. Lim said while the government has accepted the report, it hasn't yet set guidelines for its implementation. She said it is hoped the public will inform their MPPs of the situation, and pressure Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield to sit on the recommendations for the time being, at least until someone can offer real assurances such a move won't adversely affect local communities.

Scott Jackson, OFIA's manager of forest policy, said with all of the other challenges that are beyond the provincial government's control such as the high Canadian dollar, the collapse of the U. S. housing market and the breakdown of the credit markets, the industry has been asking the province to focus on those issues that are within their control, including the need to maintain current and future forestry and employment opportunities in Algonquin Park.

"The types of recommendations we are seeing in this government report threaten those companies that have been able to survive the recent economic crisis," he said.

Stephen Uhler is a Daily Observer reporter