Ford’s forestry strategy spells big trouble for caribou

February 5, 2020

TORONTO — Mike Schreiner, leader of the Green Party of Ontario, released the following statement about the Ford government's plan to double industrial logging:

“The draft forest strategy is based on a false premise that we can somehow keep deregulating and think that our forest management practices are world class.

It makes no sense to double the amount of boreal forest open to industrial logging when we are facing a climate crisis and unprecedented biodiversity loss.

There is no evidence that there is even market demand for such a major increase in forest harvesting rates.

Time and time again this government allows industrial interests to drive environmental decisions to the exclusion of evidence and input from experts.

After gutting the Endangered Species Act last year, this will make survival even more difficult for Ontario’s species-at-risk, namely the boreal caribou.

Instead of helping caribou recover as legally required under federal law, Ford is swallowing up more of their important habitat with a rip-and-ship forestry plan.

The plan flies in the face of new reporting that the scale of deforestation is being underreported in Canada, with 40,000 football fields lost every year in Ontario due to roads and landings.

Sadly, the obsession with volume undermines the opportunity to create high value markets for sustainably harvested, value-added wood products made in Ontario.”

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