OFIA FIGHTS FUNDING CUTS
The Ontario Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry’s (MNDMF) came up against harsh criticism this week by the Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA), which is protesting the MNDMF’s plan to drastically cut funding to the provincial Forest Roads Program.
The OFIA says the MNDMF move means hard working people, most notably small, independent contractors in Northern and rural Ontario will lose their jobs, and vital facilities enabling the forest sector and serving the public will not be built.
The Forest Roads Program, which has been fully utilized since it began in 2005, previously provided the forest sector with $75 million per year for the construction and maintenance of public access roads across Northern and rural Ontario. Despite its proven value to all users of public forests, the government is cutting the program by over $27 million – a deep reduction of more than 36%.
“This is very disturbing. The reduction in funding will have significant, negative impacts not only on the forest sector, it will impact all residents of Northern and rural Ontario who have benefited from this program. This is a total shock, a terrible blow to the companies that have stayed open and kept people working through this recession,” says Jamie Lim, President and CEO of the OFIA, adding, “we have tried to work constructively with the government over the past month to restore the lost
funding, however, to no avail.”
The OFIA says there is no doubt that this cutback, the largest within MNDMF’s 2011/12 budget, will have significant impacts on the forest sector, the residents of Northern and rural Ontario and other industries that have benefited from this program. The OFIA is equally concerned about the lack of warning or advance notice provided by the government.
“It in fact appears, that the government has been aware of these cutbacks since January and withheld this critical information for months” says Scott Jackson, Manager of Forest Policy at the OFIA, citing the recently revealed fact that MNDMF brought the proposed cutbacks to the roads program forward early in 2011 as part of its ‘Results Based Plan’. “It is going to have very real impacts on hard working Ontarians and is completely unacceptable. This will definitely hurt the small operators and contractors who are invaluable to our sector,” added Jackson.
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