“What will you do to stop old-growth logging in the province?” That’s a question The Discourse heard after we asked what questions you have for provincial election candidates.
We sent the question to candidates in the Nanaimo-North Cowichan riding. BC Liberal Party candidate Duck Paterson did not respond to the request by the deadline. We will update this story if we receive a response.
The Discourse is offering pop-up election coverage in Nanaimo based on feedback from residents. Sign up to get our stories straight to your inbox. If enough people want us to continue in-depth coverage in Nanaimo, we’ll stick around.
Chris Istace, BC Green Party
The first step is to include our Indigenous communities as full partners, and to hear their ideas on forests and their traditional territories. To do this we must recognize their sovereignty on those lands. I will ensure the government implements a moratorium on all high risk old-growth ecosystems across the province, while developing a strategy for science-based old growth management. We will absolutely support workers by ensuring this plan creates stable and sustainable jobs by investing in our many mills in Nanaimo North Cowichan to allow them to align with those changes.
Doug Routley, BC NDP
This is an issue I know many in our community are concerned about and if elected we will work, in collaboration with Indigenous leaders, labour, industry, and environmental groups, to implement recommendations of the Old Growth Strategic Review to protect further old-growth stands –this in addition to the 353,000 hectares we protected just last month.
