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Future of Living Legacy in question (9/03)

The funds might be running down but the legacy of the Living Legacy Trust is expected to go on for some time.

The funds might be running down but the legacy of the Living Legacy Trust is expected to go on for some time.

Ontario Premier Harris announced the creation of the Living Legacy Trust on March 29, 1999, along with other components of Ontario’s Living Legacy. An independent board representing environmental, industry and forest management interests manages the trust.

As of March 2004, the five-year program with $30-million in funding from the Living Legacy Trust created from the Ontario Living Legacy will run out. The question now is what next? It is not a question that can be answered by the staff or the board of trustees for the trust, says Living Legacy Trust executive director Karan Aquino, but it is a question that is being asked.

“The science programs have really been the bedrock of the trust,” Aquino says. “We’ve funded a number of programs from fundamental ones like tree improvement and growth and yield programs to some varied research around bio-diversity, conservation and intensive forest management. Those things have momentum and can’t come to an abrupt halt so some of the parties are asking, ‘what next?’”

Current research funded through the trust includes closer examinations of harvest guidelines such as marten habitat and riparian zone guidelines that were put in place as “cautionary” standards, Aquino says.

The Upper Lakes Environmental Research Network (ULERN) has received funding for several projects throughout the life of the trust. In 2003, it received over $300,000 for its “Testing a Large-Scale Photography (LSP) System for Wildlife Habitat Assessment and Forest Inventory in the Great Lakes-St.Lawrence Forest of Ontario” study.

“It’s been very instrumental in allowing us to do some of this research with our partners,” says ULERN communications officer Craig Zimmerman. “Without it, some of this research might not have got off the ground. Having the fund there has been very good for Northern Ontario in relation to research...One of the wonderful things about the trust is that it has brought industry together with government and education towards a common goal.”

Because the program started with a lump-sum investment of $30 million, including operational costs, Aquino says the program has been able to grant over $31 million in funds raised through investments and interest.

Additionally, the program has also been able to leverage more than $50 million in matching dollars from forest industry partners and other sectors and in-kind services that would not have otherwise been possible.

“What that’s an indicator of is these are aimed-to-grow, high-priority projects and not just a money grab,” she says. “We tracked this project by project and year over year and cash has been an increasing share of contribution. It shows that these projects are work that all parties want to see happen and are willing to make it happen as long as there’s leverage funding.”

It has also funded various other programs to create forest employment opportunities for youth and First Nations communities, and commissioned a study that looked at value-added market opportunities for Northern Ontario.

Although the trust has accepted around 170 projects, approximately 180 have been declined. And, even though some research projects have not resulted in outcomes that were expected, Aquino says the fact they did not has added to the bank of knowledge that will be useful to the industry.

Final reports are expected to be into the Trust by next March after which the board will review those final reports and release the results, a process expected to take until next July.

After that, Aquino says, “the world is my oyster”.