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Rocky Mountain House
A HOUSE DIVIDED BY TURMOIL
By Dr. Tim Grier
Rocky Mountain House is a house torn and divided by turmoil; it's all the fault of Ralph Klein. On the one hand, local residents and environmental groups want the sun to set on Sunpine Forest Products' secretive proposal to log 5,670 sq km of Central Alberta's Eastern Slopes. On the other, business interests see the $32 million plant as the dawn of economic revitalization. You're either for development or you're against it. An ugly line has been drawn between friends, families, and neighbours. Ralph Klein maintains that line by continuing the secretive give-away of public resources initiated by Getty's government.
As Environmental Minister, Ralph Klein sidestepped his responsibility to require an Environmental Impact Assesment (EIA) by calling the proposal "only a sawmill." In doing so, each year 80 million board feet of public lands will be cut without one work of public input. This farce began when the Getty government initiated Integrated Resource Planning after they designated up to 80% of the area as priority timber harvesting. What little public involvement there has been occurred after the government decided to cut all timber west of Rocky Mountain House.
Still, Ralph Klein doesn't seem to know why the public wants input through an EIA and a Natural Resources Conservation Board (NRCB) review. He should consider the questions that rage at Rocky Mountain House.
"Sunpine begged for confrontation by locating the laminated veneer lumber plant in the rural residential valley of Strachan without any consultation with residents. Why couldn't the company locate in any of the thousands of square kilometers of vacant crown land further west?
"The Rocky Mountain Corridor is worth much more ecologically and economically in its present state where tourism is a prime activity and small local logging operations already occur, than knocked down by Sunpine Forest Products."
- Gray Jones
Don Getty's Minister of Tourism, Don Sparrow, refused to release a consultant's study on tourism when repeatedly asked by letter and in the legislature. Don't Albertans have a right to know tourism's potential for this area? Shouldn't Ralph Klein release that study, paid for at public expense? What about the 30 guides, outfitters and other eco-tour company operators? Don't they have a right to know how their livelihoods will be affected?
Vegetation studies are critical in establishing wildlife habitat inventories and are necessary in predicting regeneration capacity. The Alberta Department of Forestry says these would only cost $30,000. So why haven't they been done?
Ask the provincial Department of Forestry about a species inventory for the logging area and, with embarrassment, they'll have to refer you to a survey conducted by Western Canada Wilderness Committee and the University of Alberta's Dr. Jim Butler. They found 123 species of bird, 23 mammal species and 13 species of orchid. Amazing, but why hasn't the government inventoried the area before rushing in to log it? Doesn't the public have a right to know what will be lost, before it's gone?"
Central Alberta's west country forest is a precious public resource. Ralph Klein's new government needs to prove it's different. Stop the secretive give- aways of the old Getty government!
Dr. Tim Grier, Area resident opposed to Sunpine
