Forestry transition committee needs community voice, independent chair: NDP critic
“ It's time to include community voices on the Forestry Transition Team and make the chair independent of government, says NDP rural and regional development critic Claudia Chender.
Chender voiced her opinion face-to-face with three members of the team — including chairwoman Kelliann Dean — who appeared before the natural resources and economic development committee on Wednesday.
The senior bureaucrats charged with forging a new path for the province's forest industry and its workers in the wake of Northern Pulp closing was unable to provide a solid picture of the economic impact resulting from the mill's shutdown, including an approximate number of how many in the local sector are out of work.
That was a point of concern for Chender that demonstrates why the nine-member committee, which includes four deputy ministers presiding over a $50-million transition fund, needs to include a local community member that's given decision-making power. While the chairwoman claimed that the committee is already getting a lot of community input, Chender questioned whether it's being acted on.
‘Government gets all kinds of input but we rarely see them act on it," said Chender. So what we would like to see is a much more robust, important engagement but also of all the communities that are so deeply impacted by this because in some cases we'll be able to shift and rehabilitate the forest industry.’
She said the makeup of the transition team should follow the community-based committee struck after the former Queens County Bowater mill closed in 2012. In that case, a response plan was put together by a team including local business and forestry leaders that were then submitted to the province.
She said the province is missing an opportunity to take a broader look at the future economy of rural Nova Scotia.
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