Woodlot owners urge government to reverse silviculture cuts

Woodlot owners converged at the New Brunswick legislature on Wednesday to tell the government that cuts to the province's silviculture budget could cause the loss of up to 700 jobs.

"My pitch to the minister and to the people of New Brunswick is that what is being taken care of here is not individual woodlot owners, but it's the resource, and it's a resource that is a significant part of the base of the economy," said Andrew Clark, president of the New Brunswick Federation of Woodlot Owners.

The 2008-09 fiscal year budget, tabled in March, trims the government's contribution to silviculture, which is the thinning oftrees and the planting of new ones on private woodlots, from $8 million to $4 million.

Also, instead of paying 80 per cent of woodlot owners' silviculture costs, the province will now contribute 50 per cent.

The changes will potentially see the loss of as many as 700 forestry jobs in the already struggling sector, Clark said.

"When you've got this much of the industry shut down, you've got a crisis here," Clark said. "Every time a mill shuts down, you report on it and on how many jobs were lost. This program right here, if they do not change their position, there are going to be as many jobs lost as if you shut down another major mill."

Mystified by cuts

Woodlot owners say they're angry, frustrated and mystified by the silviculture cuts, after several studies over recent years indicated New Brunswick needs to grow a lot more wood, Clark said.

The changes are going to have a major impact on rural New Brunswick and the government should be ashamed of the cuts, Keith Ashfield, Conservative natural resources critic, told the legislative assembly on Wednesday.

But Natural Resources Minister Donald Arseneault said the government was concerned about how the program was being administered.

After meetings with the government on Wednesday, it appears it is unwilling to budge, Clark said.

Many of the association's 40,000 members are seniors, or on fixed incomes, and Clark said they won't be able to invest in their properties as a result of the budget cut.

Bad timingwith N.B. mills also closing

Darrel Charlton, who owns a woodlot in Hoyt, said he counts on silviculture work for about two-thirds of his income.

"It's going to put me out of work along with lots of other people," Charlton said. "The general public don't really know about [it]."

Clark said with less wood harvested from private woodlots, many of the non-profit marketing boards which receive a small amount of money based on the wood sold will also not be able to survive.

"They may be able to survive on paper, but wouldn't have the cash to continue to operate a viable business," he said.

As lots go untended, the wood supply will also be lost, said David Palmer, manager of the York-Sunbury-Charlotte Forest Products Marketing Board.

"They won't be getting worked on or improved or managed and lot of private wood lot owners will not be engaged in operating their woodlots because of what's taking place," Palmer said.

The timing of the cuts also couldn't be worse, with private woodlot owners already reeling from the number of mill closures in New Brunswick over recent months that has meant the loss of their biggest buyers, Palmer said.

The woodlot owners will now have to meet again to decide the next step, Clark said.