PC Public Accounts member calls on NS forestry transition chair to answer questions

The Nova Scotia forestry transition team met Thursday for the first time and moved quickly to announce a $7-million investment into the silviculture work, to directly support the hundreds of workers in the forests.

Progressive Conservative Public Accounts Committee member Tim Halman calls the move a positive step, but as the closure of Northern Pulp looms closer, the effects on the forestry sector will be more widespread and so he’s calling on the Liberal government to act quicker and more transparently.

“I think we all recognize one of the worst parts of going through a crisis situation is not getting answers to some questions,” said Halman.

Northern Pulp in Pictou County will shut down at the end of the month, forcing more than 300 factory workers out of a job, but the closure has already affected thousands of others who work in the forestry sector.

On Thursday, Halman requested that forestry transition team chair Kelliann Dean, the deputy minister of intergovernmental affairs and trade appear, before the public accounts committee. Liberal MLA and public accounts vice-chair Suzanne Lohnes-Croft, however, vetoed that.

Lohnes-Croft suggested that the Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee would be the appropriate venue to hold that question-and-answer session.

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“I’d prefer it be at public accounts, but to me, getting answers to the questions is more important than the venue,” said Halman. “So I’m calling on the government to have the transition team at the natural resources committee as soon as possible.”

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Stephen Cole is a woodlot owner and partner at HC Haynes, the largest timbre broker in the province and says the loss of the mill in Picou County has hurt business but says the $7 million for silviculture work is a good start.

“The $7 million doesn’t replace the market, but it gets silviculture done on the ground,” said Cole.

“What we need is a place to sell our lower-grade wood and our sawmill residues.”

Cole said Northern Pulp stopped buying pulpwood and sawmill chips on Dec. 27, but in a measure of good faith, he says the company did complete a last-minute major purchase to help those in the industry.

“They bought over a half-million dollars in pulpwood which quite frankly they didn’t need to do,” said Cole.

The challenge facing woodlot owners and sawmill operators now is finding a new market for their lower-end products.

“We essentially have no market for our pulpwood,” said Cole.

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It’s part of the forestry transition team’s mandate to find a marker for the sawmill by-products and the undesirable pulpwood.

Lohnes-Croft said the Natural Resources and Economic Development Committee will meet again on Jan. 28. Lohnes-Croft chairs that committee and says a motion to ask Deputy Minister Dean to appear could be made at that time.

“We need to get some answers, for those workers and families,” said Halman.

“We need answers when it comes to the mandate of the transition team, the strategies they’ll be using to help those workers and families, and how they will measure the outcomes.”