(Photo: Green Party of NB/Facebook Screengrab)
In a pair of announcements on Saturday, Green Party leader David Coon said his party would focus on building relationships with First Nations communities and improving market access for private woodlots.
The Green leader said his party would immediately call an inquiry into systemic racism in the province’s justice system. He would also involve First Nations communities in the management of Crown forests.
“It is time that we turn public acknowledgements that the indigenous people of New Brunswick never ceded their lands into genuine actions that reflect this reality,” Coon said.
The plan also includes a commitment to supporting Indigenous language training. The Greens plan to immersion programs for Wabanaki languages.
Coon’s second announcement targeted at private woodlot owners would involve making changes to the Crown Lands and Forests Act.
Those changes would give private woodlot owners can become the primary source of wood supply for the province’s mills.
Coon says he wants to stand up to the ‘big guys’ and ensure fair access for small woodlot owners across the province.
He says the Conservative and Liberal governments of the past few decades have made it impossible for woodlot owners to live off their supply.
