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Minister of Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield attended an editorial board meeting at The Chronicle-Journal Monday afternoon. (Brent Linton)
Natural Resources Minister Donna Cansfield is not giving up on the beleaguered forestry sector.
“There‘s no question there is a future,” she said during an editorial board meeting Monday at The Chronicle-Journal.
“It‘s just that it‘s going to take some time to rebuild it.” That recovery might take three years,” she estimated.
“At first when I met with the folks (in the industry), they said we‘ll be back in two years and now they‘re talking a lot longer.”
Cansfield said the ministry is working with the industry on what are the kind of transitions that need to be done “and how do work with them in terms of those transitions.
“We have companies that we‘re actively engaged in negotiations with who hopefully will be setting up manufacturing very shortly in the Northwest,” she said.
Manufacturing might turn out to be the salvation of our forestry sector.
Finland, Cansfield said, experienced the same kind of downturn Northern Ontario is going through now.
She said about 20 years ago Finland experienced a 20-25 per cent unemployment rate in the forest industry.
“They say that‘s where we are today because we were so limited. We were strictly on the production side.
“They really hit the bottom but they emerged out of it virtually as a manufacturer and now they‘re one of the largest forestry sectors in the world,” Cansfield said.
The world has evolved in the computer age and people are not using as much paper as they used to.
Even a student‘s essay is now sent online to the teacher.
“So as it‘s evolved, what will be the product that will be required to produce the sustainability in that (forestry) sector?” she asked.
“I suspect it will be, from what I‘m hearing from the industry, a combination of ensuring they have up-to-date equipment, ensuring they have a workforce adequately educated to deal with the new technology and looking at their market in terms of what‘s viable out there in terms of production,” Cansfield said.
She also discussed a range of issues ranging from the Endangered Species Act (ESA) to the declining moose population.
Cansfield said the ministry is working with environmental groups and forestry officials.
“I believe there is a solution there.”
Forest industry stakeholders maintain the act will tie timber harvest up in red tape with a new permitting system and could be the final blow to the Northern Ontario lumber industry.
‘The economy must be part of the discussion, society must be part and environment must be part,” Cansfield said.
“You cannot sacrifice one for the other.”
She said her ministry is working on a solution that allows or permits the ESA to be folded into the Forestry Management Plan.
“That‘s exactly what we‘re working towards.”
On the declining moose population, Cansfield said climate change plays a role, the parasite plays a role and so does a growing deer population that is pushing moose further away.
“It‘s not one thing that‘s causing a challenge with the moose, it‘s a multiple issue,” she said.
“We want to ensure a sustainable moose population. How does climate change impact it?”
Cansfield said global warming is affecting other species as well. She cited the example of polar bears who have three to four weeks of less food because the ice is going out sooner.
“So if that‘s the case, my responsibility is to the hunters, the caribou, moose, polar bears and bears,” she said.
“How do you ensure their sustainability? That is on my agenda.”
By Jim Kelly
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Chronicle Journal
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