The Ontario government's protection of woodland caribou could remove a large chunk of wood fibre from harvesting and cost thousands of forestry jobs.
A study prepared by the Ontario Forest Industries Association (OFIA) reports up to 33 per cent of industrial fibre supply may be taken out of circulation because of caribou habitat regulation under the province's Endangered Species Act.
The OFIA study paints a picture of four different scenarios on wood supply impacts ranging from two-million-to-nine million cubic metres of wood that could be lost from a provincial total of 26 million cubic metres. As many as 3,200 jobs could be jeopardized.
"We believe the worst scenario is the most realistic," said OFIA forest policy manager Scott Jackson.
OFIA considers the Endangered Species Act to be redundant to the modern management practices already used in the planning of Crown forest units.
The group wants Queen's Park to make good on a 2007 commitment made by then-Natural Resources Minister David Ramsay to write such language into the Act.
"We thought that acknowledgement by the province was in place, until the rug pulled out from under us," said Jackson. "We are getting killed in this province by policy on the ground."
Jackson said the Ministry of Northern Development, Mines and Forestry are beginning to recognize the negative impacts of government policy, but the Ministry of Natural Resources and Minister Linda Jeffrey have been slow to respond.
