The proposed transfer of cutting rights in the North Thompson from Canfor to Interfor continues to drag on and the mayor of Clearwater is hoping he won’t have to take drastic measures.
The proposed $60-million deal has seen little change for more than eight months now and if there isn’t any movement by the forest ministry soon, Merlin Blackwell has said he’s prepared to go all the way to the legislature in Victoria and he reiterated it on the NL Morning News.
“Their ministry, everything from the Fraser Canyon rock slides to Northern Caribou to us to umpteen other issues, I don’t think their files have ever been more active,” he said. “So, as somebody who got elected and got into something he didn’t exactly sign up for but understood the risks, I understand that. I have a great deal of sympathy for both of them (Forest Minister Doug Donaldson and Deputy Minister John Allen) on this.”
“At the same time we both have a job to do and I hope they understand that my job is to represent my people as firmly and loudly as possible and they have, obviously, the same responsibility to all of us.”
Blackwell said he was willing to picket the legislature when he found out Donaldson hasn’t even seen the file.
“The minute we heard this hadn’t actually made his desk yet, we all made that commitment or several of us made that commitment to make the symbolic point of going to Victoria and standing on the lawn if we did not get change on this.”
The mayor was asked if there was a hard cut off date for any such action.
“I’m going to play it out until February 28th on that because that’s one of the drop dead dates that one partners has got into, but if we don’t see movement closer to that I think we’ve got to make plans to show up on February 28th or earlier.”
Blackwell thinks a recent series of online posts may have gotten the Minister’s attention.
“I got the feeling that they suddenly became a little bit more aware of timelines and information they maybe didn’t have and realize they need to act more quickly on this.”