Northern Ontario is the new Clayoquot Sound

A decade ago, people were outraged when the then normally pro-environment and socialist government in British Columbia gave logging companies in the province carte blanche to clear cut Clayoquot Sound, one of the last remaining rain forests in North America. The blockades became something of a legend in the Canadian story as the Mounties forced protesters off the logging roads. Despite this and the public relations disaster successive NDP and Liberal governments in BC have held firm and the logging there goes on still. Now, one wonders if the same thing could be happening to Northern Ontario.

True, Ontario has no rain forests -- most of the vast tracts of trees suitable for logging are Boreal. However, the number of logging roads continues to multiply at a rapid pace, causing concerns for the province's ability to act as a carbon sink. True, new trees are replanted but they can't absorb as much carbon as older ones. Worse still, human activity is chasing caribou away to the point where their natural habitat may have reduced by as much as 2/3. That's quite a footprint to eliminate.

Make no question, a strong forestry industry is vital to my home province's success. It's just one of the natural resources that makes Ontario great. But there is a difference between stewardship or dominion, and exploitation or domination. It also makes no sense that we have a Greenbelt in the South -- part of which is just a short drive from where I live -- but there is no management plan for the North, where our future lies.

There was that old slogan from the 1960s about Ontario being a place to stand and a place to grow. The only way both apply is to recognize that we're inherently interconnected and once damage is done it's done and impossible to repair. Selective logging and reducing the footprint caused by roads and power lines is acceptable. Spreading out the way it's been happening must be put in check. Otherwise, the smog zones will spread farther and farther north -- and I wouldn't be surprised to see even Moose Factory getting the stuff we send up that way within a decade with no trees to absorb it.

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