The Mayor of Clearwater says his community are “guinea pigs” in the first real implementation of community consultation requirements under Bill 22.
The bill requires forest companies to get ministerial approval before transferring tenure agreements to another party, like the $60 million deal between Canfor and Interfor announced in June.
Merlin Blackwell says government needs to tell all stakeholders how to have a say on a particular deal.
“Because at this point, if its up to just industry to do that, it could be skewed in favour of those that are all on board with this deal, and maybe leave some of the stakeholders out that need to have their concerns met on the outside.”
However, he says it makes sense that industry leads the consultations as they’ll have a better idea than if government were to impose something.
“Interfor and Canfor can know a lot better how they can make this deal work. What isn’t great at this point is an understanding by the public as to how they comment on this deal and the whole transaction,” Blackwell added.
“The ministry even if they don’t get directly involved in Interfor-Canfor’s efforts at rolling out this deal, that the Minister of Forests does come and speak and sort of explain what the government is hoping industry does with this deal, explain what the rules are for the consultation, and explain what ‘in the public interest means.'”
He previously told NL that he’s hoping residents speak out about the deal especially if they are opposed to it. That’s because Blackwell says Interfor is getting the word out in favour of the deal, and he fears the North Thompson valley will be left out if people don’t know how to speak up.