Kapuskasing has called for a special council to discuss a decision on the future of forestry in the north. Town council will meet Wednesday to discuss the request from the Ontario Forest Industries Association for support against the provincial government’s implementation of the Species at Risk guide. The guide contains prescriptions or rules for 28 species along with the effects on Ontario’s regional forestry operations. Mayor Alan Spacek says the guide has to be delayed, because if the legislation is passed, jobs will be lost in the north.
Spacek says the issue they have with the current state of the guide is the process involved in its creation, which he says gives priority to the endangered species rather than the lifestyle and economy of Northern Ontario. He says the current process creates more issues than it does solutions, and therefore Kapuskasing will support the OFIA in asking the SAR guide be delayed from practice.
