Black Friday blowout sale on N.L.’S natural resources
iphones and ipads are not the only items over 50 per cent off this holiday season. Newfoundland’s rich and bountiful natural resources are up for grabs, at a fraction of the cost that most other jurisdictions charge. The only request is that they “promise” short-term minimum-wage positions. We guarantee a cheap and reliable workforce. We will even waive the environmental assessment and give you some cash to get started.
Large multinational corporations have heard about our unbeatable prices. As a result, they have set up shop in all sectors of natural resource development. We have Norwegian companies expanding open net-pen salmon farming at breakneck speed, promising hundreds of jobs and jumping through every loophole in the environmental assessment process. They have come from their European homelands where this style of aquaculture was recently abandoned.
Then, we have global oil corporations pumping billions out of the Grand Banks. Of course, this comes at a cost to the marine environment. Last week Husky lost some 250,000 litres of crude oil into the ocean as they were attempting to resume production in extreme storm conditions. Rest assured everything is fine because Newfoundland’s strict environmental policies ensured that no cleanup is necessary. Government and industry want us to believe we have stringent world-class environmental protection measures in place. I think the Husky spill demonstrates otherwise.
Newfoundland’s Black Friday deals don’t stop at the shoreline. We also have big plans to grind our forests into pellets. Another European group has set its eyes on forest management districts 17 and 18 to convert timber into biofuel.
In other words, they plan to grind over one million hectares of old boreal forest on the Northern Peninsula into crumbs and sell them around the world. It seems as though iconic species such as the dwindling population of woodland caribou who overwinter in the area, or the Newfoundland pine marten and the endangered red crossbill who call these forests home don’t quite fit into “the way forward” and will be left to find a new home, and fast.
Newfoundland is so rich in natural resources. We have the potential to be an economically prosperous province. Unfortunately, how we are going about exploiting our resources and who is benefiting from them is not acceptable. We need to move away from boom and bust industries, put the proper value on our resources, separate government from industry and stop destroying the environment for economic growth. If you are an outdoors person or someone who cares about the environment and wildlife in Newfoundland, now is the time to speak up! It is our duty and responsibility to protect the environment for those yet to be born and for those who cannot speak.
Brendan Kelly
A student in Charlottetown, P.E.I. who is from Paradise, N.L.