Resources need to be better managed

I received some alarming information on Monday that tells me the biomass furnace at Port Hawkesbury Paper and run by Nova Scotia Power has been operating at full blast 24/7 for months. This in spite of what Premier Stephen McNeil told us just a few months ago. It has been running even while the mill itself was closed for two of the last four weeks due to lack of sales for glossy paper.

The softwood biomass in Cape Breton is nearly exhausted and they are now gearing up to mass cut old growth hardwood at a very, very low stumpage cost to Port Hawkesbury Paper - maples, beech and birch. They will chip that and truck those chips to Irving at Sussex and Saint John, N.B. The empty trailers will load softwood sawdust and shavings and haul that back to Port Hawkesbury at Nova Scotia taxpayers’ expense.

They will cut 100-plus year-old sugar maples that could be tapped every spring to make maple syrup which can be exported. The carbon credits from those same trees can be auctioned off once a year at about $19 per tonne of carbon absorbed.

Is this how we want our resources managed? To be nearly given away?

This is unacceptable to everyone apparently except the Department of Natural Resources and the Liberal Party in Nova Scotia. I am enraged! Don Wilson

Brule Point, Colchester Co.

Re: “School culture can be destructive,” Cape Breton Post letter to the editor, Jan. 23.

I find some of the comments made in this letter somewhat rude. One example of how youth in our community were painted went as follows: “… lower-knowledge level students, who aren’t overly technical, don’t have great work ethic, and expect politics to deliver jobs.”

Seriously!

Employment Nova Scotia wants to help Nova Scotians meet full employment needs and help employers find employees. Check out the CanadaNova Scotia Labour Market Development Agreement and other programs across the Department of Labour and Advanced Education. How many times have we heard any government say “creating jobs and growing our economy?”

If some of this generation has the same mentality, that is one culture I want NO part of. It is a good reason for our youth to move away, stay away and not come back.

The phrase “What skills do I need to work our west?” should be turned around to say “I want to stay East. Can you help?”

Lets help our youth, not criticize. Todd McDougall Glace Bay