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Province promises N.B. forest report by April after seven years of missed deadlines

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Province promises N.B. forest report by April after seven years of missed deadlines

Green leader says department first promised report in 2016 and raps lack of ‘annual plan’

Tom MacFarlane, the deputy minister of natural resources and energy development, acknowledged that his department has missed several deadlines it gave itself, starting in June 2016, to finish and publish the report. 

He made the new commitment after Green Leader David Coon hammered the department for repeatedly promising the report and then not delivering it.

"Delay after delay after delay after delay," Coon said during a meeting of the legislature's public accounts committee.

"The question is, Mr. MacFarlane, what is it you don't want the members of the public and this legislature to know about the state of our forest?"

No annual plan

Earlier in the morning, Coon also forced MacFarlane to admit that the department had not published an annual plan listing its objectives — a plan required under provincial law to be posted on the department's website.

"I'm not aware as to why we haven't published an annual plan," MacFarlane said.

He said the department has been using a mandate letter from Premier Blaine Higgs as a guide — though he didn't realize that mandate letters are kept confidential by the current government.

"I guess I thought they are made public centrally, and I'm told they are not public," he said. "But we have not produced an annual plan."

Mandate letters are given by a new premier to each new minister and their department, outlining the government's priorities.

Liberal premier Brian Gallant made them public for the first time in 2014 but current Premier Blaine Higgs has reverted to not releasing them.

The province's Accountability and Continuous Improvement Act requires departments to publish annual plans laying out their objectives for each fiscal year.

That allows the department, MLAs and the public to compare the plan's objectives to results laid out in a subsequent annual report.

Why plan is needed

With a report but no plan, Coon said, "it's extremely difficult for us to do our work in holding the department accountable in how it uses tax dollars if we don't know what those goals and objectives in the plan are."

The act says departments "shall" prepare an annual plan to "set out the goals and objectives" during a given year and establish "a strategic direction," then "identify objective performance measures" for those goals.

It also says the minister for the department "shall make the annual plan public by publishing it on the department's website" within three months of the start of the fiscal year.

'Delay after delay after delay after delay,' said Green Party Leader David Coon of a forest report promised seven years ago. (Jacques Poitras/CBC)

On the state of the province report, Coon said the last one was in 2008 and pointed out the auditor general recommended in 2015 that the department issue new versions more frequently to report on how forests are being managed for ecological sustainability.

Coon said the department committed to a new report by June 2016, told him in 2017 it was "coming soon," assured him in 2019 that it would be tabled in the legislature in 2020, and in 2021 told him it would be ready that summer.

He said there was then another promise it would be done in 2022.

"Certainly there's been a number of things that have impacted our ability to deliver that report," MacFarlane said.

"I can promise you that that report is in draft form right now and we are anticipating to get that out this fiscal year."

Department has other priorities

He blamed "limited staff" for the delay and a focus on other more important programs.

"I can apologize for missing our targets and notions of the past, but certainly we've been prioritizing a lot of our initiatives," he said.

"It's limited resources that we have, and we try to make sure that we're focused on the items that require the highest priority." 

Assistant deputy minister Chris Ward added that the raw data that would be used in a state of the forest report is available on the department's online open data portal.

"There's no hiding data," Ward said. "For those that are interested in data, it's online."

The discussion with Coon over missed deadlines is the latest in a series of exchanges between the Green leader and the department.

In 2020 he chided MacFarlane for the department for not having produced an emissions-reduction strategy three years after the release of the province's climate change plan.

During that session, department officials also said New Brunswick would miss its goal of having 2,500 electric vehicles on the province's roads by the end of 2020. There were only 429 at the end of 2019.

On Wednesday, MacFarlane was able to report that the province is on track to meet its next EV target of 20,000 by 2030.

He said supply chains were a problem until last fall but are showing signs of improvement now, with more electric vehicles available for sale now and federal and provincial rebate programs helping to spur sales. 

"We're seeing our numbers increase significantly so we're very hopeful that holds," he said.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR


Jacques Poitras

Provincial Affairs reporter

Jacques Poitras has been CBC's provincial affairs reporter in New Brunswick since 2000. He grew up in Moncton and covered Parliament in Ottawa for the New Brunswick Telegraph-Journal. He has reported on every New Brunswick election since 1995 and won awards from the Radio Television Digital News Association, the National Newspaper Awards and Amnesty International. He is also the author of five non-fiction books about New Brunswick politics and history.

CBC's Journalistic Standards and Practices 
 
 
 
50 Comments
 
 
David Amos
Methinks we should not hold our breath waiting for another April Fools Joke the NB Power rate hike due that day will be enough to cause a lot of folks to faint anyway N'esy Pas?
 
 
 
 
 
 
Jim Johnston  
Forest management in NB is a joke. Essential information is held back and it is very difficult to clearly analyze it. It comes down to the fact that we pay more out to manage the forest than we receive in revenue from selling the wood. The only viable solution I see is to keep what we want for recreational and environmental issues and sell off the rest to the federal government who could use it to settle up with our First Nations.  
 
 
David Amos
Reply to Jim Johnston
Surely you jest  
 
 
 
 
 
John Grail 
Guessing this isn't a top priority for the Irvings... 


Jos Allaire 
Reply to John Grail
It is! a priority They don't want a report. 


David Amos
Reply to Jos Allaire
Methinks that order can be found within MacFarlane's confidential mandate letter from Higgy N'esy Pas?  
 
 
 
 
 
Peter Churcher  

David Coon is always trying to find a conspiracy. I doubt that if we ever had him lead the province that he would do any better. One simply has to drive around our Province and despite reports to the contrary we do have a lot of trees. Tens of thousands of acres of trees. 
 
 
Rosco holt
Reply to Peter Churcher
Allot of trees that is shipped to the states. 
 
 
Peter Churcher
Reply to Rosco holt
Yes but without the forestry business and there revenue it brings in we would be a lot worse off.
 
 
Dan Lee
Reply to Peter Churcher
what revenue? we are paying them to cut our wood...... jesus   
 
 
Robert Buck
Reply to Peter Churcher 
I think you missed something on the revenue the forestry brings in. Ask the private woodlot owners.  
 
 
Peter Churcher
Reply to Dan Lee
Not to debate the obvious but the forestry industry also employs thousands of New Brunswickers and yes they do pay us money to harvest timber on Crown lands. Do you advocate that we get rid of one of our only industries? 


Dan Lee 
Reply to Peter Churcher 
they pay us? hen....sh..t.........we pay them to cut......plant.......pour poison on them........i can show you plantations of a certain company with big big timber........  
 
 
Al Clark
Reply to Peter Churcher 
Well there ya go.

NB Forest report

"thars A lot of trees"

Hit print and it's miller time!

Pshew that was 7 yrs haaaard work 
 
 
Dennis Atchison 
Reply to Peter Churcher  
Yes. My interview with Ken Hardie, then the General Manager of the Small Woodlot Owners Federation, detailed clearly how we citizens were subsidizing big industry and as you say, "... paying them to cut our wood". Here is the interview in case no one believes "facts" ... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PC5ZbC78a6U 
 
 
Don Corey 
Reply to Dan Lee
Yes, the forest industry does pay royalties. No, we don't "pay them to cut". Yes, the department reimburses Licensees for necessary silviculture conducted on crown lands; that has been the case since the Crown Lands and Forests Act back around 1981, so nothing new here. As to the "poison", that's your word for it.....not mine.  
 
 
James Hickey 
Reply toDon Corey 
we lose money on our crown forests , how can anyone lose money selling wood
 
 
Don Corey 
Reply to Dennis Atchison 
Ken Hardie is a smart guy, but he also has his own agenda; and it's generally in conflict with the forest industry. Then there is the department, which sets annual crown royalty rates. The "facts" are far more complicated than Hardie's take on the situation. However, he is absolutely right on about royalty rates (especially for sawlogs.....softwood and hardwood). They are way TOO LOW.  
 
 
James Hickey 
Reply toDon Corey 
who do you work for   
 
 
Don Corey  
Reply toJames Hickey
I'm retired. No, I didn't work for Irving, or DNR, but I do know what I'm talking about.
 
 
Don Corey
Reply toJames Hickey
Good question. Our crown lands should be managed as a net source of revenue to the province. For example, what used to be Fraser Freehold land (over 700,000 acres) in NW NB is now owned and managed by Acadian Timber. They generate a significant profit every year, selling their wood to mills in NB and Maine as well as providing recreational opportunities (at a cost) to the public. 


David Amos
Reply to Don Corey
Amen 
 
 
David Amos
Reply to Don Corey 
"I'm retired. No, I didn't work for Irving, or DNR, but I do know what I'm talking about."

Me too

 
David Amos
Reply to Peter Churcher
Say Hey to Mikey Holland for me will ya? Tell him I know why he never voted for me. 
 
 
David Amos

Reply to Dan Lee
Amen 
 
 
David Amos
Reply to Dennis Atchison 
Methinks its interesting that you are allowed to promote yourself N'esy Pas?
 
 
David Amos
Reply to Rosco holt
Bingo
 
 
 
 
 
 
Richard Ames 
Irving doesn't like to share information. As leader of the Green Party, he should know that. 
 
 
Rosco holt
Reply to Richard Ames 
Just like the Irving Premier. Data shmata.  
 
 
Sam Smithers 

Reply to Richard Ames
PCs getting data delivered that the Liberals did not, what else is new.  
 
 
James Hickey
Reply to Rosco holt
Frank McKenna and bud bird started the giveaway so do not blame higgs although he has not fixed it 
 
 
David Amos

Reply toJames Hickey
What you say is true about Franky Boy and his many cohorts not just his buddy Bird. However our little Lord promised if he were to be elected to reverse the foul play practiced against private woodlot owners and their fellow stakeholders in Crown land but never did and no government has done so since. Methinks Higgy is just the latest ringmaster in this circus N'esy Pas? 
 
 
David Amos
Reply to Sam Smithers
I heard that your hero Higgy has no respect for data  
 
 
David Amos
Reply to
Well put  
 
 
David Amos
Reply to 
Yup
 
 
Archara Goldehere 
Reply to Sam Smithers
7 years late wow come on lol you are very funny if you think this is ok lol  
 
 
 

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