Daily Herald Contributor
For the second time this month, members of Protect Our Forest group came out to protest in downtown Prince Albert.
There were chants of “save our trees, save our trees,” outside the former Prince Albert Forestry Centre on 800 Central Avenue which now houses the University of Saskatchewan’s Prince Albert campus.
The protesters were made up of residents from Sturgeon Lake First Nation, Metis Local 66 and members of the Forest Protection Network. The group says the provincial government promised a moratorium on logging in the in areas northwest of Prince Albert, but they are concerned that moratorium isn’t being enforced.
“There’s a consultation process between the provincial government and anybody with the Section 35 Rights. This consultation that we just had is the very first one that Sturgeon Lake has ever entered into,” Dave Rondeau, Consultation Coordinator for Sturgeon Lake First Nation said. “There is a deep-seated mistrust between the First Nation and the Government. The relation was just starting to warm up. We were just starting to talk.”
The protesters carried placards with signs like ‘save the forest for the next generation’, ‘This is for all to share’, ‘Let the earth breathe. save our trees’, ‘The trees look after us. Protect the environment’.
“We want the government to come back to the table,” Rondeau said. “There should be a moratorium on that whole area. There is too many people that use it.”
The protesters say the moratorium on that land should last atleast a year starting from March this year.
The Ministry of Environment previously stopped plans to clear cut trees in the Holbein and Crutwell areas northwest of Prince Albert in January. The Ministry is unable to comment due to the ongoing provincial election campaign.