(From Facebook Live)
The province’s Green party plans to immediately ban the spray of glyphosate and other herbicides on Crown Lands and under power lines.
“Successive Liberal and Conservative governments have been afraid to stand up to the big forestry companies,” says party leader David Coon. “I will stand up for what New Brunswickers want, and with 35,000 signatures on the Stop Spraying petition I presented in the Legislature, it is clear that it is time to ban the use of glyphosate and other herbicides on our forests.”
Coon says if elected, he would also reduce the amount of clear cutting in the province.
“I saw the latest satellite photography for New Brunswick and I was appalled at the scale of clearcutting all across the province,” he says.
Coon says it’s hurting wildlife populations and reducing the value of timber the forest can grow.
“A green government would put an end to indiscriminate clearcutting and replace it with selective logging to encourage the natural regrowth of trees without having to rely on monoculture plantation,” says Coon.
He says so much power has been handed over to the large forestry companies to make the decisions about how our forests are being managed.
“A Green government would remove that power that’s been given to corporations to manage our forests and place it in a new public commission for forest management, accountable to the people of this province that would enter in co-management agreements with First Nations,” he says.
He says not only is it affecting the environment but it’s also hurting the tourism sector because when people come to New Brunswick, they expect to see trees.
