A little over a month after the above picture was taken, a 25 year agreement with Irving on the subject of Crown land was released at the Legislative Assembly of New Brunswick.
According to the agreement, the Irving's already unsustainable annual allocation of 2 045 000 cubic meters of Crown land will be rising significantly, starting July 1st. The allowed area of spruce, pine, jack pine and white pine will be taking a little step from 1 500 000 (1.5 MILLION) cubic meters, to approximately 2 027 000 (OVER 2 MILLION) cubic meters. PER YEAR.
Crown land, if you don't know, is land that is owned by the government. This means the government is giving this land to Irving. But isn't the government supposed to belong to the people? So in a sense doesn't this land belong to us, as well? Shouldn't we have been asked how we feel about this before it happened? Not really, because democracy only exists if money isn't involved.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the province's main concerns at the moment is (or should be) our absurd lack of employment opportunities in New Brunswick. However, it's becoming quite clear that as long as the government is getting paid, they really don't care if you are.
Personally, I believe we could have killed two birds with one stone. If the government had all this land to readily give away, (while the deal DOES state that the agreement with Irving will not be stopping the uses of private woodlots) why not give MORE to the local, family owned logging companies? If I'm going to have to watch my province be destroyed, I would at least appreciate if the revenue from it stayed in the region, as opposed to being paid out to other parts of the province and other parts of the country.
Don't turn our environment into someone else's money.
According to the agreement, the Irving's already unsustainable annual allocation of 2 045 000 cubic meters of Crown land will be rising significantly, starting July 1st. The allowed area of spruce, pine, jack pine and white pine will be taking a little step from 1 500 000 (1.5 MILLION) cubic meters, to approximately 2 027 000 (OVER 2 MILLION) cubic meters. PER YEAR.
Crown land, if you don't know, is land that is owned by the government. This means the government is giving this land to Irving. But isn't the government supposed to belong to the people? So in a sense doesn't this land belong to us, as well? Shouldn't we have been asked how we feel about this before it happened? Not really, because democracy only exists if money isn't involved.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but one of the province's main concerns at the moment is (or should be) our absurd lack of employment opportunities in New Brunswick. However, it's becoming quite clear that as long as the government is getting paid, they really don't care if you are.
Personally, I believe we could have killed two birds with one stone. If the government had all this land to readily give away, (while the deal DOES state that the agreement with Irving will not be stopping the uses of private woodlots) why not give MORE to the local, family owned logging companies? If I'm going to have to watch my province be destroyed, I would at least appreciate if the revenue from it stayed in the region, as opposed to being paid out to other parts of the province and other parts of the country.
Don't turn our environment into someone else's money.