FORESTRY

COALITION
July 3, 2008

To Selected Media

www.forestry coalition.com
For Immediate Release

Hardworking Ontario citizens send message to

Premier
THUNDER BAY – Hundreds of people from all walks of life have signed their
names to a letter to the Premier of Ontario urging him to avoid the decimation of the
province’s forestry sector that will occur with a wrongly implemented Endangered
Species Act.

Municipal leaders, housewives, bankers, lawyers, business owners, educators,

forestry workers, high school students, journalists and police officers are among
those signing the letter that outlines the issues with the government’s current
implementation of the Act that exposes one of the province’s largest industries to
crushing duplication of process and frivolous court challenges.

“We are seeing the breadth and depth of concern that is felt by people across this
province. Some of the signatories of this letter are doing so on behalf of thousands
of people,” observes Iain Angus, Chair of the Ontario Forestry Coalition (OFC)
which issued the letter and request for signatures.

“People have a growing understanding of what a wrongly implemented Act will do

to their livelihoods and their communities. They are going to be very vocal in
sending a message to Queen’s Park that government cannot pander to select
Southern Ontario special interest groups at the expense of jobs and future economic
opportunity,” adds Anne Krassilowsky, President of the Northwestern Ontario
Municipal Association (NOMA).

Thunder Bay Mayor Lynn Peterson explains, “Virtually every person signing the
letter understands the need to protect species at risk. They also understand that
Ontario has platinum standard forest management practices that already meet the
primary objectives of the new Endangered Species Act.”

…2
Message to the Premier
July 3, 2008
Page Two

The OFC, which represents municipal leaders, First Nations communities, Chambers of
Commerce, Union locals and forest industry partners, has examined other jurisdictions in
which similar implementation of endangered species legislation was enacted.
“The results in the US state of Oregon have been tragic and fatally flawed,” says Jamie
Lim, President/CEO of the Ontario Forest Industries Association who points to news
articles as recent as June 23 from Oregon where the economic havoc of poorly
implemented legislation continues to plague hundreds of communities. (See
backgrounder)

“We are not fear mongering, we are not exaggerating,” states Greenstone Mayor Michael
Power. “We have the evidence from other jurisdictions. We have the recommendations
from the government’s own Ministry of Natural Resources staff and the opinion of the
government’s own legal counsel. Implementing the Endangered Species Act using a
permitting system is absolutely the wrong path. The Act must be implemented with a
long term regulation that recognizes the existing Crown Forest Sustainability Act already
protects species at risk and meets the primary objectives of the Endangered Species Act,”
he concludes.

Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union spokesman Kim Ginter points to

election year commitments from the Premier and his former Minister of Natural
Resources David Ramsay to implement the ESA with the necessary long term regulation.

“By reneging on those commitments there are 230,000 working families in this province
that are at risk of losing their livelihoods. We’ve got to get the implementation of the Act
right,” says Mr. Ginter

-30-

For more information contact:

Mayor Anne Krassilowsky Mayor Michael Power

 807-223-6119 807-854-6766

Mayor Lynn Peterson Jamie Lim

807.628.5316 416-368-6188

Kim Ginter Iain Angus

416-931-2379 807-628-6887

BACKGROUNDER
The following is from an article published in the June 23, 2008 edition of Forest Web. A
similar article also appeared in the June 23 edition of the Oregonian Newspaper. The
articles provide some insight into the significant fiscal and social upheaval that has
resulted from wrongly implemented Endangered Species legislation.

Oregon needs four-year extension of federal

timber payments as bridge to long-term
solutions to financial crisis, says report
Jun 23, 2008 — Office of Governor Ted Kulongoski
Forestweb rewrites headlines for editorial clarity. The original story and headline begin
below.
Original Headline: Governor Receives Report from Task Force on Federal Forest
Payments
SALEM, Ore., June 23, 2008 (press release) — Governor Ted Kulongoski today received
a series of recommendations on ways that county governments and the state can work
together to save critical services threatened by the loss of federal forest payments – the
first and most critical of which was to urge Congress to reauthorize federal forest
payments for at least four years. Other recommendations include long-term solutions,
covering dozens of local, state and federal actions that can be implemented over the next
four years.

“We have made progress toward developing a long-term plan in the absence of federal
forest payments, but we need more time,” Governor Kulongoski said. “Unfortunately,
there is no single solution that will allow this crisis to be successfully managed or
resolved in the short term.”

The task force reported that the only short-term solution for the hardest hit counties is a
Congressional extension of the payments. Without an extension, Oregon’s counties will
experience a financial crisis far greater than the state’s experience during the 2001-03
recession.

Congress and the Administration remain deadlocked over how to continue to support
counties with federal forest lands. As a result, counties will begin their 2008-09 budget
year with a loss of $206 million in federal forest payments. Some counties will lose more
than 60 percent in general funds and nearly 70 percent in road funds.

Furthermore, the state will lose nearly $32 million in funding for schools, making the
total annual financial loss to Oregon $238 million. The loss in education funding will
result in schools budgeting $58 less per pupil statewide.
“This isn’t just about rural Oregon. The ripple effects of this loss will extend to every K-
12 student in the state,” Governor Kulongoski said. “Schools in the Portland tri-county
area will forego $13.4 million – the equivalent of 165 fewer teachers.”

For the long-term solutions, the task force recommends that counties first look at current
authority to propose local option property taxes, which require voter approval. The task
force also recommended that the state provide the counties more flexibility with current
revenues and offer more assistance for shared services such as public safety, public
health, assessment and taxation, roads and economic development.

The task force also looked closely at the current system for sharing forest revenues and
increasing harvest levels on federal forest lands.

Since 1957 Oregon counties have received 50 percent of the profits collected from the 2.2
million acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The task
force recommends the share to be increased to 75 percent, the percentage approved by
Congress when the original management plan went into effect in 1937.

The task force also encouraged the development of a more productive and sustainable
management plan of Oregon’s federal forests. Increasing harvests could revitalize rural
economies. At the request of Governor Kulongoski in 2005, the BLM is revising forest
management plans for western Oregon to increase harvest levels. The Governor will be
presented with a proposal in August or September with a final plan expected by the end
of the year.

The task force estimated that if all of the solutions are implemented at the maximum
extent possible and assuming higher harvest levels from federal forests, over four years
Oregon will be able to fill the budget gap left by the loss of federal forest payments by as
much as 70 to 80 percent. However, if federal harvest levels are not increased, the
solutions will cover less than 50 percent of the revenue shortfalls.

The recommendations come from the Governor’s Task Force on Federal Forest
Payments, which he created through Executive Order 07-21 in response to the uncertainty
of federal forest payments.

The recommendations are now available for public comment for 60 days, through Aug.
22.

In September, the task force will meet once more to consider the public input and
prioritize its list of recommendations for the Governor, the Senate President and the
Speaker of the House.

The task force includes state agency heads, state legislators and county and city
representatives from throughout the state. It is chaired by Tim Nesbitt, deputy chief of

staff to the Governor, and co-chaired by Bobby Green, Lane County Commissioner.