Lake Couchiching Confidential
Public process sent to the great adios by private club

HighGrader Magazine May/June 1999
by Brit Griffin
How do you manage Crown Lands in Ontario? Simple. Get a couple of CEOs from a few pulp and paper giants, add in some high-tone Toronto greens, bring in a few MNR dudes to keep things on track, provide maps and get coffee, and then patch it all together in time for the press ops (see Lands for Votes page 20). Never mind that, if, along the way, Native rights get ignored, the fragile forests of the far north get buzz cuts or that the people of Northern Ontario are left out like beggars at a ball.
It wasn't supposed to be that way. The Tories had made big promises that the Lands for Life process carving up the future of Northern Ontario's land base would be a public affair. And the people living on the land, Northern Ontarians, were supposed to be in the drivers' seat.
Three roundtables, made up of chosen "stakeholders", were given the daunting mandate to come up with fair land-use designations. Public meetings were held. Maps were studied. Substantial input was gathered. Months of stormy debate took place.
The only problem was that the roundtables, made up of northern representatives, weren't playing ball. Although they submitted 242 recommendations and lots of ideas on land-use scenarios, it wasn't the kind of simple math MNR boss John Snobolen wanted. He desperately wanted the sticker of approval from the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) for setting aside at least 12% protected lands. Protecting land in the north was to provide a green veneer for the Tories otherwise dismal environmental record.
With the process on the ropes and an election looming, the Tories decided to simply toss out the public process. According to the Toronto Star, it was Harris' sideman David Lindsay who set up a backroom deal which brought the Partnership for Public Lands (WWF, Wildlands League and Federation of Ontario Naturalists) together with a few big industry types. Lindsay just so happened to be on the Board of Directors of WWF.
Lindsay's solution was classic Tory cloak and daggers stuff. After a few preliminary scrums, some of the high profile players were invited to a cushy resort at Lake Couchiching in Orillia to hammer out a deal that would override the work of the Roundtables.
CEOs from Quebec-based giants Tembec and Domtar were there, joined by Abitibi-Consolidated, also based out of Montreal (the largest pulp and paper corporation in the world).
Leading the green team were Partnership representatives Monte Hummel and John Riley. Also at the table were a few high-level MNR bureaucrats. This so-called `inner sanctum' was surrounded by a large supporting cast confined to the outer rooms to review maps, provide input and review options. During negotiations, none of these minor players were allowed into the inner sanctum.
The outcome was a new Ontario Forest Accord, a signed, sealed and delivered policy statement that basically hands over future decision-making in the forest to this same group of backroom operators.
It is ironic that up until then, the big Greens had been howling in outrage at the lack of public scrutiny surrounding Lands for Life. Wildlands League's Tim Gray, for example, had just months before come out swinging over the lack of public participation in secret government / industry meetings held out near a Toronto airport hotel (surely not the same one at which the Couchiching gang finished up their talks).
At the time, Gray charged that these meetings were to give the go ahead to intensive forestry. He demanded that these decisions be made with public consultation, but "...they (industry) didn't want to do that, they wanted to be able to stand back and beat up on protected areas and do a quiet deal with the Ministry out of the public eye."
It wasn't, however, until Gray's group were invited to join the private party that plans for intensive forestry were given the green light. This, despite the fact that the public Roundtable process had csteered clear of any moves towards plantation-style forestry.
Timiskaming MPP David Ramsay must have been looking into a reliable crystal ball when he suggested earlier in the process that the north might be divided into "zoos and deserts".
The agreement to turn over some of the "working" forest to highly intensive management was the trade-off industry wanted in order to give up other parts of the forest for parkland. Without even blushing, the Forest Accord boys have announced that in order to make intensive forestry possible it may be necessary to toss out the standards set for biodiversity in the Crown Forest Sustainability Act.
Brennain Lloyd of Northwatch was not invited to the Orillia shinding, despite the fact that she is a veteran of environmental issues in Northern Ontario. Lloyd says that Northwatch has "...always supported a system of protected areas but not at the expense of overall standards."
It is these overall standards that are at stake in the practise of intensive forestry. The process is very expensive, depends on herbicide use and fertilization, and basically creates mono-cultured tree plantations. As one forester said, "it goes against everything we've tried to implement in terms of ensuring greater biodiversity in the forest."

Lloyd is concerned about this backroom decision-making. "It is a worrisome precedent to have broken away from the public process. We all know there were some serious problems with Lands for Life, but I would take a horrible public process over a non-public process any day."
Brian Blomme, communications manager with the MNR, was surprised that some might think that the process lacked legitimacy because no northern representatives were invited to the table. He points to the industry reps as providing a northern viewpoint. These men, however, were there in their capacity as CEOs of large, publicly traded companies. None of the companies have head offices in Ontario. Is it reasonable to expect that these Captain's of industry were there to place the public good above that of their shareholders?
As well, who made the Partnership for Public Lands the voice for the public or the environment? They represent only 3 of the 88 environmental organizations that made submissions to Lands for Life. There was some consultation during the Lake Couchiching horse-trading but the Partnership was never given any kind of mandate to negotiate on behalf of the environmental community or the public.
"Who is this government to decide that these three organizations represent the entire public? Can these international and national-based groups represent the concerns of the northern environmental constituency?" asks Lloyd.

Perhaps one of the most troubling aspects of the Forest Accord is the prospect of logging north of the 51st parallel. North of 51 wasn't even part of Lands for Life. It has never been open to licensed commercial forestry nor undergone an Environmental Assessment. But it appears that this "out of sight and out of mind" land in the far north will be the trade-off for the more scenic parts further south.
Lloyd refers to this option of logging north of the 51st as one of the "real low points" of the Forest Accord. "To drive industry north of the 51st parallel where no EA has ever been done causes concern. You can't assume the same conditions are there (as in the rest of the Province)."
The last time this was tried was under the Davis Tories in the 1970s and led to a major campaign against Reed Paper. Premier Davis and Reed Paper quickly hightailed it south of 51.
About five years ago, local native groups began negotiations with two levels of government over the possibility of opening parts of the region up as a way of providing relief for native communities suffering from devastating levels of unemployment.
Talks regarding the North of 51 initiative stalled out and the natives later woke up to the news that the boys at Lake Couchiching were making deals with their land.
"Given that the North of 51 negotiations either stalled or failed, where does the Forest Accord come along to override those negotiations with First Nations?" asks Lloyd.
Under the Accord, it looks like Abitibi is setting itself up as the company to handle the natives north of 51. Such optimism seems a trifle misplaced as Abitibi was facing highway blockades from Natives angered about the lack of open consultation over land issues in Grassy Narrows. Time perhaps, to get off the Lake Couchiching Holo deck.
The Forest Accord is a windfall for the Tories. Not only does it make them look like the ultimate green deal-makers on the eve on an election, but it effectively downloads the public trust to an unaccountable and un-elected group the signers of the Forest Accord.
This means that Monte Hummel and a few CEOs will be the ones to sit down with what's left of the MNR to decide the future use of northern lands. With an additional 8% of lands to be set aside in protected areas, as well as well as issues pertaining to the details of intensive forestry, some big decisions are still to come decisions that could affect the livelihood of small towns across Northern Ontario.
But the people most affected will be left on the sidelines when the big boys get down to play. After all, if the precedent of the Forest Accord is any indication, dear readers, forestry policy in Ontario is going to be very hush, hush and strictly on the QT.

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