Editor:
I am demanding that Mr. Thomson remove section 24 from Bill 8. Allowing the forest licensees to have area based tenures will only cause more hardship for an already crippled Guide Outfitting Industry.
Area Based Tenures means gated roads, huge disagreements between the sawmills and other tenure holders over access to the backcountry, not to mention what it will do to all British Columbians who use the backcountry for fishing, hunting, snowmobiling, camping and all the other uses we as Residents have a right to use.
Selling out to the logging companies is just wrong.
Do you want this for your grandchildren, I am sure the residents of British Columbia don’t.
Mr. Thomson, you know that other than the discussion initiated by the timber committee, that there would have been no discussion about area based tenures at all if Mr. Rustad and a few others had not asked those individuals who were presenting in front of the committee.
If you think this is false then it is plain and simple that you did not follow the transcripts of the meetings the timber committee had in the communities in the north. It will be made public that this whole thing is another Liberal scam.
I am asking that you put politics aside for once and do what is right and drop this, and I am sending the attached letter to everyone I know and every news agency in B.C. and the U.S. to ensure that the people of B.C. are aware that you are selling out British Columbia.
Your recent decision to put 50 per cent of the guide outfitters out of business with your approval of the New Allocation Policy was enough, why don’t you just call it a day and allow those able to survive the quota cuts do an honest business.
Enough of the back room politics you and the rest of the Liberal Party and your photo op leader Christy Clark have been guilty of, The Liberal Party will get what is coming to them in the next election, and maybe you will understand what it is like to have your livelihoods taken away by those you trusted.
Stop section 24, Bill 8. And stop killing our forests, our livelihoods and our future.
Stewart Fraser
Itcha Mountain Outfitters 2005 Ltd.