Kent County municipal leaders unanimously condemn Tory forestry plan

NB MEDIA CO-OP  ::  Dallas MacQuarrie  ::  30 June 2014

Hundreds rallied against the forest plan 

and Alward government-JD Irving contract 

on May 13 at the NB Legislature in Fredericton. 

Photo by Stephanie Merrill.

St. Ignace – Municipal governments in Kent County have unanimously condemned the Alward government’s Crown Lands Forest Management Strategy announced earlier in the year. They say the Conservative’s forest strategy will “damage the hunting, fishing, farming, maple syrup harvesting, and tourism sectors” while harming “the quality of life of the people.”

Meeting in Rogersville on June 27, the seven locally-elected mayors and nine local service district chairpersons who make up the Kent County Regional Services Commission (RSC) all voted to “demand that the Province of New Brunswick not sign any Crown Lands Forest Management Strategy prior to the provincial election on September 22.”  Their resolution says the strategy could “obligate the people of New Brunswick to a contract that restricts future governments.”

One of the more controversial features of the so-called forest strategy is its plan to significantly increase the clearcutting of forests. The Kent County RSC motion by Harcourt Local Service District (LSD) chair Tina Beers condemns the “clearcutting of the forest” that she says “poses risks to the environment, hastens climate change and has a direct impact upon groundwater, wetlands, rivers and streams,” and “will have a direct ecological impact on the forest, plant life, wildlife and fish stocks.”

Scientists who study the ecology of forests, along with private woodlot owners, have now been joined en masse by local governments in declaring the strategy so flawed as to be a threat to the very future of New Brunswick’s forests.  The depth of the opposition to what critics say is just another giveaway to J.D. Irving is perhaps best illustrated by the fact that not a single comment in favour of the forest management strategy was heard at the Rogersville meeting.

St. Charles Local Service District chair Allan Marsh, who seconded the motion, blasted the forest strategy for its failure to consider the impact shale gas development, if allowed to proceed, would have.
“A single shale gas well pad for a single well destroys seven acres of forest forever,” Marsh said.  “The government is talking a thousand wells.  That’s a minimum of 7,000 acres of forest taken out of production forever!”  In a subsequent interview, Marsh said that “when the forest land destroyed by a road to the well pad is included, then the total acreage lost is about nine acres.”

“The Alward government is talking about drilling 1,000 shale gas wells and, with the roads to those wells ‘factored in,’ that means at least 10,000 acres of forest lost forever,” he said.  “The failure to taken this very significant loss of forest into account is a major flaw in the strategy.”

Along with its demand that the Alward government drop what some say is really a deforestation strategy, the Kent County RSC is demanding local involvement to ensure “sustainable development” of a resource that is critical to the province’s future.   It says municipalities and members of the RSC must be “directly involved in all decisions” that affect the future of the forest here.

Local government leaders say local involvement is necessary “to guarantee the respect and the coherence of the local land use plans.”

While the groundswell of opposition to the forestry scheme is building, both the Liberals and the NDP seem to be unwilling to tangle with the Alward Conservatives on the issue.  In May, Opposition Leader Brian Gallant criticized the Province for not doing it sooner.

“Not acting sooner has cost our economy dearly,” Gallant said at the time.  A posting with that statement on the Liberal Party website has since been removed, but the front-runner in the race to succeed Premier Alward has made no commitment to kill the so-called forest strategy.
The NDP’s Dominic Cardy is refusing to take a position on the issue.  He says $6,000 in donations by the Irving family to the NDP in 2011 and again in 2012 have nothing to do with his refusal to criticize the plan.

The Green Party is now the only provincial political party that has not received Irving family donations.  It’s also the only party that has consistently endorsed scientists and others who are increasingly alarmed by the deal.

It’s the second time in nine months that municipalities across Kent County have lined up against a major initiative of the Alward government. Last September, the Kent County RSC voted 14-1 in favor of a moratorium on shale gas development in the province.

David Coon demands details of Irving forest deal be made public

Green Party leader says contract between J.D. Irving Ltd. is unprecedented

CBC News   ::  Mar 19, 2014

Related Stories

New forestry plan provides more Crown wood to industry

New Crown forestry plan greeted with shock, dismay

Irving clout with government challenged in wake of forest deal

The leader of the Green Party in New Brunswick is calling for the public release of the contract the Alward government signed with J.D. Irving Ltd. to guarantee wood supply from Crown land.

The forestry company holds a licence that authorizes it to cut timber on Queen-Charlotte-Fundy block of Crown land.

Jim Irving, the co-chief executive of J.D. Irving Ltd., and Green Party Leader David Coon discuss the province's new forestry strategy following last week's announcement. (Alan White/CBC)

Coon says under the Crown Lands and Forests Act, Irving is already authorized to cut Crown timber for 25 years and is required to describe its plant investments and employment levels for a 10-year period.

One week ago, the Alward government announced it would allow a 21 per cent increase in the amount of softwood that can be cut on Crown land.

J.D. Irving Ltd. will receive 60 per cent of the increased allocation of 660,000 cubic metres of softwood, the legislature was told last week.

"New Brunswickers and First Nations have a right to know what David Alward has signed away to the Irvings," said Coon.

"I am concerned that this contract obligates New Brunswickers to compensate J.D. Irving if public efforts to rebuild local forest economies, establish community forests, resolve aboriginal title, or increase conservation measures in the future diminishes the amount of wood the government has agreed to provide the company over the long term," said Coon.

"I worry this contract handcuffs the hands of future government to the policies of the Alward government," he said.

Coon maintains the contract signed with J.D. Irving Ltd. is unprecedented and has no legal basis under the Crown Lands and Forest Act.

"First Nations and all New Brunswickers have  a right to see what obligation the Alward government has imposed on us with this contract," said Coon.

Natural Resources Minister Paul Robichaud said Wednesday at the legislature that the agreements between the government and forest companies will be announced publicly after an initial round of announcements by industry.

Robichaud said financial information on the companies may be redacted, but details on the allocation of wood will be made public.

"As soon as we finish our round of announcements and as soon as we finish signing contracts with different companies, our intention was not only to make public the information related to Mr. Irving's company but all the companies that will sign contracts with the province of New Brunswick," said Robichaud.

Twin Rivers Paper Company is scheduled to make an announcement at the Tobique-Plex in Plaster Rock on March 27.

The announcement had been scheduled for Thursday, but was postponed due to the weather forecast.

Twin Rivers operates a lumber sawmill in Plaster Rock. It also operates a pulp mill in Edmundston, which feeds the company's paper mill across the St. John River in Madawaska, Me.

Green Party Looks to community based future

Green Party Leader David Coon says in New Brunswick, we must, among other things, look for more cooperation among levels of government and abandon outdated ideas of how to generate growth in the economy. Above is the fertile farmland so common along the beautiful St. John River Valley. Photo: Images NB 

The Green Party is the party of community, and it is in our communities where we can move our economy forward.

There is much that can be done, but it will take time, it will take leadership and it will take a coherent vision of what kind of New Brunswick we want.

The Green Party has no illusions about the challenges we face. We have entered a period of slow economic growth which will persist for the foreseeable future, something the other parties refuse to acknowledge.

We cannot magically return to the remarkable growth of the post-war period of the last century, despite the rhetoric we hear. The combination of factors that made that possible will not be seen again.

The current obsession to relive the glory days of growth by massively expanding our production of oil and gas with pipelines and fracking is an exercise in self-injury in the face of the climate crisis. While we may feel better in the short-run, it’s self-mutilating and fails to resolve the underlying problems.

We need a critical mass of new ideas and approaches to move our economy forward through this transition period. We must accept responsibility, and take control of our lives and communities, because the new economy will be built from the bottom up, drawing on the perseverance and ingenuity of our people.

We can strengthen our local economies by producing more of what we consume here. Producing and buying local creates jobs for New Brunswickers. Importing what we need does not.More of what we earn must be invested in New Brunswick rather than outside the province to fuel the development of new businesses and cooperatives here.

Steps have to be taken to keep the wealth we create with our hard work, circulating within New Brunswick, rather than flooding out of the province to other places.

A diversity of business,cooperative and social enterprises can create new green sustainable jobs across all of our sectors if we resolve to move our society and our economy toward sustainability. There are a growing number of New Brunswick enterprises that are creating these jobs now.

I visited a number of them during my new economy tour of the province, from long-standing cooperatives such as Northumberland Dairy in Miramichi to manufacturers such as Maritime Geothermal in Petitcodiac.

There is an important role for the public sector as well.

The development of a smart and greener electrical grid by NB Power is an excellent example. Just the other day I met someone who has moved to Fredericton to work on this green infrastructure project, a nice complement to the growing ITC sector in the capital city.

And it’s time that job sharing and four-day work weeks be made available as options. Let’s offer this in the public service, and encourage the private sector to follow suit. In the face of slow growth, four-day work weeks and job sharing will help ensure more people have jobs.

We New Brunswickers are a resourceful people — always have been. We will rise to the challenge, but it can’t be based on living in the past, chasing out-of-date dreams, looking for jobs in all the wrong places.

Business, cooperatives and social enterprises will step up to be part of the transition if we have local leaders, local governments and a provincial government working together to provide the vision and leadership we need to move toward sustainability.

This necessarily means the premier, cabinet and individual MLAs must be willing to cede power to local communities. They need to be allies,not overlords.

Our community colleges and universities are filled with enthusiastic and creative young people, eager to engage in building toward a greener future. Adopting sustainability as our overarching goal will give more a reason to stay, or return with their young families to be part of this historic transition.

Someday, I can hear young people across Canada saying,“it’s happening in New Brunswick — it’s really happening!” At the moment, we are like the caterpillar crawling along the ground who has no idea what awaits if she only climbs up a milkweed plant and spins a cocoon.

It will take time, leadership, perseverance and all the resourcefulness we can muster, but we can transform N.B. into the community we want it to be.

DAVID COON is the leader of the Green Party of New Brunswick.