Why Grand Chief Stewart Phillip is against Horgan's proposed old growth logging deferrals
Cortes Currents
English - November 05, 2021 13:06 - 9 minutes - 21.3 MBNews cortes island discovery islands quadra food security energy indigenous nations Homepage Download Apple Podcasts Google Podcasts Overcast Castro Pocket Casts RSS feed
Roy L Hales/ Cortes Currents - Grand Chief Stewart Phillip, President of the Union of BC Indian Chiefs, is among those speaking out against Horgan’s proposal to defer logging on 2.6 million hectares of the province’s most at risk old growth forests.
He also spoke against “the alarming reduction of old growth forests due to unsustainable logging practises.”
Phillip praised the “incredibly dedicated, committed, individuals who understand the incredible value of old growth forest” and are opposing Teal Cedar Products logging operations at Fairy Creek. (The RCMP have arrested 1,160 as of Thursday, November 4.)
“When John Horgan ran in the last snap election, he made a commitment to safeguard, protect, and ensure that logging in old growth forestry would be deemed to be absolutely sustainable and that there would be a dialogue with Indigenous peoples and other groups (that have a vested interest in the preservation and protection of old growth forests) and so on and so forth, but unfortunately that did not happen,” said Grand Chief Phillip.
He calls the government’s “confusing announcement” yet another example of this administration’s “crisis management, whereby the Horgan government lurches from issue to issue.” The idea of giving First Nations 30 days to respond to it is “ludicrous.”
If the government wants to address this issue, Phillip says it needs to commit to a “formal legislative process with a time frame of three to five years,” and provide funding for the project.
He described the current announcement is a delaying tactic: “As we speak, logging continues in old growth forest stands. Permits are firmly in place. Other permits are being issued. What the Horgan Government has done, effectively, is defer the deferrals.”
The Horgan Government also promised to honour the UN Declaration on the rights of Indigenous Peoples.
Grand Chief Stewart Phillip pointed out, “They promised to realign the laws of British Columbia to incorporate our jurisdictional interest - and we all know that did not happen.”