The Forestry industry in our…

The Forestry industry in our region is extremely important to the regional and provincial economy. The draft strategy that has been prepared appears to be reasonable and covers the basics that it should. It is difficult to educate residents of large urban communities about the struggles and impacts that their social media posts and shares have on a resource economy in a small community hundreds of miles away. I'm not certain what causes those same individuals to have such strong feelings of environmental protection for an area that they know very little about, but definitely, government is flooded with cautions and concerns for protecting Ontario's natural resources.

I do not wish to offend residents of large Southern communities, however I do wish to speak up for the thousands of Northern Ontarian's who make their living working with our natural resources. These resources are then shipped south for these same consumers to purchase or utilize in their daily lives. It is not that all of the wood cut in the north stays in the north, most of it is transported to be used by consumers across Ontario and around North America. I have included a booklet of information that we developed when touring a group of municipal representatives around our regional forestry sector businesses in October 2019. The day was very successful and all seventeen participants agreed that they learned much about the industry and its impact on the regional and provincial economy.

In the proposal details section (2) Putting more wood to work, it suggests that the Province will reduce regulatory burdens for industry to access wood. It is not clear within that wording if the Species at Risk Act will be relaxed to make it possible for companies to access wood fibre in forests that are currently listed as caribou habitat, when in fact, no caribou live in those areas. Companies have been sustainably harvesting these areas of the province for years, but for some reason, a new line was added to a map and now these same companies that have been cutting areas for generations, are now no longer able to cut these same areas.

Please ensure that the impacts of the Species at Risk Act are considered during the strategy implementation process.