B.C. municipalities support Vancouver Island push to save old-growth forests

by Kelly Sinoski

“Our old-growth forests are not a renewable resource,” he said. However, some Vancouver Islanders such as Cowichan Valley Coun. Al Sebring were against the move, maintaining municipalities should focus on local issues such as roads, water and sewer and not old-growth forests, the Site C dam or anti-poverty legislation. Charlie Cornfield, a councillor in Campbell River, and Port Hardy Coun. Fred Robertson added the issue should be debated regionally because it only affected the Island communities. “The motion could have a significant impact on the social fabric of small forest-dependent communities like Port Hardy,” Robertson said. “Nobody has talked to us or the First Nations.” The UBCM committee had recommended the motion be heard locally, but MacKinnon asked that it be raised at the convention.

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