The New Brunswick government is pushing ahead with a controversial forestry plan that is drawing criticism from scientists and academics across the province.
Jim Irving gave Premier David Alward a few pointers on tree growing from his company’s seedling nursery in Sussex on Friday.
The facility will be the site of a new $3-million research lab to improve tree growing techniques. The federal and provincial governments are providing $1.5 million to build the centre.
While Irving emphasized his company’s commitment to science, a letter questioning the science behind the government’s new forestry plan was released.
The letter is signed by more than 180 academics, biologists, and scientists, as well as New Brunswick’s four universities and the Maritime School of Forest Technology.
The letter states the new forestry policy needs to be scrapped. Those who signed it say the policy was put together behind closed doors and that it threatens conservation and will have questionable economic benefits.
“We need to go back to the drawing board, stop this immediately and go back to the drawing board and re-think what we’re doing,” says forestry instructor Rod Cumberland, who was formerly employed by the Department of Natural Resources.
“The scientific community across the province are saying this does not line up with science whatsoever. We know that very clearly, it does not line up with what department staff have said years ago.”
But Alward is standing by the policy and the science behind it.
“The work that’s going on here is first-class science, it has leading scientists from across the country, innovation that is taking place in New Brunswick,” says Alward.
Under the forestry plan, J.D. Irving has promised that hundreds of millions of dollars will be spent on mill modernization around New Brunswick and hundreds of permanent jobs will be added to the industry.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Mike Cameron
