FREDERICTON – A group of experts and scientists are calling on the provincial government to develop a new Crown Lands and Forests Act.
Representatives of the N.B. Federation of Woodlot Owners, Conservation Council, Nature N.B., Salmon Council, Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society and N.B. Wildlife Federation made the announcement in Fredericton Thursday.
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Much of the discussion was about how to move forward after the previous government signed a 25-year agreement with J.D. Irving Ltd., allowing more of the company’s forest operations on Crown land.
Those contracts have been a thorn in their sides since they were signed. Now, Lois Corbett says, they’re using the contracts as a symbol.
“We’re not getting the jobs that the people deserve from the resource that the government holds in trust, on our behalf. We need to move forward,” said Corbett, of the Conservation Council.
“So I think, interestingly enough, the contracts are the symbol of what’s wrong and what’s broken.”
The group calls the existing act “outdated.” It came into law in 1982.
They’re asking that a new one properly manages the province’s historic resource.
“Managing a resource will include harvest, whether it’s harvesting trees, harvesting fish, harvesting wildlife or fiddleheads,” said Peter Cronin, of the N.B. Salmon Council.
“We’re not opposed to cutting wood off Crown lands. We just do feel that we need a new strategy.”
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The group wants to help draft that new strategy.
They say the Brian Gallant government kept their promise to release details of the Irving contracts and have posted more maps and information on the GNB website.
Corbett says it’s not enough.
“You can’t fix the problem in the Crown forest merely by posting things on the government’s internet site,” she said.
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