Vanderhoof Omineca Express, February 27, 2013

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MISS TEEN CENTRAL BC P. 2 EDITORIAL P. 6

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CANCER SOCIETY NEEDS VOLUNTEERS P. 7 PINK DAY P. 16

E xpress OMINECA

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$1.34 Inc. HST Vol. 35 No. 52

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Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Forest reform sparks debate on privatization

Winter wrestlers

Tom Fletcher Black Press

More than 50 skiers participated in the Nechako Nordics Family Ski Day on Feb. 16 and 17 at Riverside Park. After a cloudy start, the sun came out for the final hour of morning activities. There was plenty of time for fun and games when Elite Team skier Charlie Borek took on Theo Clarke and other younger skiers in a wrestling match. Clarke Action Photography

RCMP praised, questioned on community policing strategies Cameron Ginn Omineca Express Town and RCMP officials held a meeting at the Village Inn on Thursday, Feb. 20, to discuss public safety issues and strategies in community policing. Additional rows of seating were

needed after some 50 people filled the conference room. When the meeting began, Mayor Gerry Thiessen and Sergeant Jason Keays, commander of the Vanderhoof RCMP detachment, immediately recognized the region as the traditional territory of Saik’uz First Nation and acknowledged the importance of work-

ing as partners in combating crime. “Crime doesn’t seem to have one boundary, doesn’t seem to stay in one area,” said Thiessen, who alluded to several projects aimed at reducing particular offenses and ancillary crimes in Vanderhoof.

The B.C. government has introduced amendments to allow the conversion of volume-based forest cutting permits to area-based tenures, a move that some have described as a move toward privatization of Crown forests. Forests Minister Steve Thomson said the government intends to proceed carefully with converting existing cutting permits, which set a maximum amount of timber that can be removed from a licence area each year. Consultation with communities and First Nations in the forest areas would be extensively consulted first, Thomson said on Wednesday, Feb. 20. The change is designed to make forest licences more like existing tree farm licences or community forests, which give licence holders an incentive to invest more than the legal minimum in replanting and silviculture to increase forest productivity over the long term. Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson has warned that the move could lead to public forests coming under the control of large forest companies. Jason Fisher, vice-president of Dunkley Lumber, rejects the privatization argument. His company bought a volume-based tenure in Fort St. James in 2009 when it took over Stuart Lake Lumber, and also holds an area-based tree farm licence at Hixon between Prince George and Quesnel. "I think that is a misrepresentation of what goes on," Fisher said on Feb. 20. "We have numerous recreation areas, lakes where people go fishing, roads that people use to access their favourite hunting sites, berry picking site or mushroom harvesting. All that takes place in the area of the (Hixon tree farm licence)." NDP forest critic Norm McDonald said the timber supply committee that toured the province last year to study the state of B.C. forests in the wake of the pine beetle epidemic supported the use of area-based tenures. But the ministry didn't have studies to show areabased tenures are a better way to go, although most foresters believe it is better.

t SPRING r a t S Kick “

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Kick Start is a community driven initiative focused on creating an awareness of what Vanderhoof has to offer!

For more information call the Omineca Express: 250-567-9258

Publication Date: March 13 & 20, 2013


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