Ontario's Boreal Forest

A sample letter to the Premier of Ontario

DATE

The Honourable Dalton McGuinty
Premier of Ontario
Legislative Building
Queen's Park
Toronto, ON M7A 1A1

Dear Premier McGuinty,

You made an election promise that you have not kept. You promised that planning to protect sensitive portions of Ontario’s northern boreal forest would occur before any development permits were granted. Already, new mining has been approved and forestry plans are underway, but still the needs of sensitive boreal forest species, like migrating songbirds, have not been addressed.

As you are aware, most of Ontario’s northern boreal forest has not yet been allocated to resource industries. This provides an unparalleled opportunity to plan proactively for resource management, conservation and communities and to develop a coordinated comprehensive conservation-based land use planning policy that is implemented before development decisions are made.

Ontarians need your government to develop a comprehensive land use strategy for the entire boreal forest that will better manage the developed lands in the southern, industrialized boreal forest, and which will work with First Nations communities and conservation groups to complete land use planning in the northern unallocated boreal forest.

An important component of the boreal forest policy for your government to consider is to require all sustainable forest license holders to be third-party certified using the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) standard which is currently the most socially and ecologically responsible standard.

As the comprehensive land use policy is being developed, I urge you to place a moratorium on all logging in woodland caribou habitat until an effective woodland caribou recovery plan is underway. Woodland caribou numbers are declining at a fast rate and need industrial operations to stop in their ranges until a plan is in place which can ensure their habitat needs are met, as required under the federal Species at Risk Act (SARA).

Please keep your promise. Your action now will ensure the preservation of Ontario’s boreal forest and will leave a lasting global legacy.

Sincerely,

Your name and address

cc. Minister Ramsay (david.ramsay@mnr.gov.on.ca)

Ontario Nature (info@ontarionature.org)