News Release
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FONOM and NOMA Supporting Forestry Day on the Hill
May 27, 2015 - Municipal leaders from Ontario and Quebec joined forces today for a day of action on Parliament Hill in Ottawa in support of sustainably managed Boreal Forests in Canada.
Along with municipal leaders from Ontario and Quebec, representatives from the Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA) and the Quebec Forest Industry Council (QFIC) were in attendance. The focus for the day was to support the forestry industry and hold Greenpeace and other environmental activists groups accountable for their misinformed campaigns that target customers of forest products sourced from Canada’s Boreal Forest.
“For generations, forestry has been and continues to be an important component of the social and economic fabric of our Boreal forest communities,” said Mayor Alan Spacek, President of the Federation of Northern Ontario Municipalities (FONOM).
“As Mayor’s, we are here to promote that companies in Ontario’s Boreal Forest operate under a world class forest management regime with advanced harvesting practices,” added Spacek.
It is important that the public and government leaders are made aware that forest product companies operating in Ontario are governed by a world-class forest management practice, the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA). Under this Act, forestry companies must operate by strict environmental standards.
In Ontario, only 0.5 percent of the forest in the Boreal region is sustainably harvested annually, while 44.2 per cent of the forest in the Boreal is unavailable for harvest. This renewable natural resource supports over 175,000 direct and indirect jobs in over 260 communities.
As of late, the industry has been targeted by non-government environmental groups in an effort to decimate forest companies by launching campaigns using false information.
“These campaigns jeopardize jobs and sustainable economic development for our communities by spreading misinformation and reducing our economic viability by interfering with the customers using the products created in our communities,” said Mayor David Canfield, President of the Northwestern Ontario Municipal Association (NOMA).
“These misinformed attack campaigns have gone too far,” added Canfield pointing out these environmental groups have a social responsibility to cease all misrepresentation of the truth.
The group also called on the government to increase their efforts to counteract the spread of misinformation and to promote the world class forest management regime of Ontario and Quebec.
“We look forward to working with all orders of government to set the record straight, reach out to customers of forest products sourced from Canada’s Boreal Forest and ensure these key customers from around the world continue to source their products from Ontario and Quebec with confidence,” said Canfield.
