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HomeNewsCoalition worries that Species at Risk policy will hurt forestry sector

Coalition worries that Species at Risk policy will hurt forestry sector

The Ontario Forestry Coalition is worried that emotional rhetoric and not fact-based arguments will determine the final look of the government’s Species at Risk policy.   Several groups make up the coalition including the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities.   FONOM says communities dependent on the forest industry should have the final say on what the policy should state and not environmentalists who have nothing to lose.  The coalition says the Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry is ignoring research from its own people.  For example, the coalition says since the 1950s, woodland caribou herds have barely changed and that’s from the ministry’s own scientists.  Another of the members, the Northern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA), says a forestry contractor in Shuniah by Thunder Bay, recently bought $6-million in forestry equipment.   The investment was in order to expand his business and workforce.  However NOMA says this contractor is now worried about what will happen if emotional arguments drive the Species at Risk policy and not those based on facts.  NOMA says the contractor knows all too well the devastating impact the policy could have on him and his workers.   Work to finalize the policy is on hold but the coalition believes efforts are underway by activists with emotionally-charged arguments that would undermine the forestry sector.

 

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