Regulating Logging in Algonquin Park
Contents |
Introduction
Algonquin Provincial Park, at over 7,500 square kilometres, is southern Ontario’s largest park. It was created in 1893 partly in reaction to increased pressure to clear its vast forests for agriculture. It is often considered the flagship of Ontario’s park system.
Historical logging in the Park
From the beginning, private logging companies have been allowed to operate in the Park. In 1974, the licences of over a dozen logging companies were transferred to the Crown agency – the Algonquin Forest Authority (AFA) – created under the Algonquin Forestry Authority Act (AFAA) to manage forestry operations in the Park. Today, logging is allowed in the Recreation-Utilization zone, approximately 78 per cent of the Park. Over 8,000 kilometres of road have been built to accommodate the heavy equipment used by the loggers.
In 2002/2003, the AFA sold forest products worth $25.4 million; in fact, Algonquin Park timber accounted for approximately 40 per cent of the timber volume harvested annually from Crown forests in central and eastern Ontario. Although the Park has employed some progressive approaches compared to forestry practices elsewhere on Crown land, there have been strong advocates for eliminating logging from the Park altogether.
Prescribing the AFAA under the EBR?
In October 2005, two applicants used the EBR to request that the Ministry of Natural Resources and the Ministry of the Environment conduct a review of the need to prescribe the Algonquin Forestry Authority Act under the EBR for rights such as making proposals for regulations under AFAA subject to public notice and comment; allowing the public to request reviews of the need to amend, repeal or revoke the AFAA and associated policies, regulations or instruments; or allowing the public to request investigations into potential contraventions of the AFAA and associated regulations and classified instruments.
Statutes and policies governing the Park
The AFAA is one of several statutes and policies that together provide overall direction regarding activities undertaken in the Park.
- Park operations are currently regulated under the Provincial Parks Act (PPA), which requires parks to be managed for the enjoyment of the public and the benefit of future generations, but it does not require parks to be managed to preserve or restore ecological integrity.
- Forestry operations are regulated under the AFAA and the Crown Forest Sustainability Act (CFSA). Under the CFSA, the AFA has been issued a Forest Resource Licence by MNR, to carry out logging in Algonquin Park. The Park’s Superintendent is responsible for ensuring that forestry operations in the Park are conducted in accordance with the CFSA.
- Forestry operations must also be conducted in accordance with the Algonquin Park Forestry Agreement between the AFA and MNR, which requires the AFA to supply specified volumes of lumber to specified companies. The AFA’s responsibilities include timber cutting, forest management, silviculture, pest management, and the monitoring of compliance with all applicable legislation, manuals and guidelines. MNR considers this Agreement to be analogous to a Sustainable Forest Licence under the CFSA.
The public has the full range of EBR rights with respect to the PPA and CFSA and their regulations and proposals for environmentally significant policies, including the right to file applications for investigation if the AFA or the operators contracted by the AFA to harvest timber in the Park contravene the CFSA or the PPA. But the public does not have the right to public notice and comment on forest management plans or on forestry resource and sustainable forest licences issued under the CFSA.
Algonquin Forestry Authority Act
The AFAA provides general direction to the AFA in matters related to its governance, finances, priorities, principles and forest management obligations. It outlines rules related to staffing, benefits, powers and liability, and requires the AFA to harvest timber in accordance with the CFSA. It also allows MNR to set production objectives for the AFA and requires MNR to ensure that the Algonquin Park Management Plan balances maintaining and improving the quality of the park for the purpose of recreation with providing a supply of logs from the Park. Furthermore, the AFA is required to act in accordance with the Park’s management plan and to have regard for the aesthetics and ecology of the Park. There are no regulations and no instruments issued under the AFAA.
The applicants noted that the AFAA grants the AFA the authority to “permit and regulate commercial forestry operations in Algonquin Provincial Park.” Since forestry operations have significant effects on the environment, the applicants argue that the AFAA is an environmentally significant Act. The applicants also reasoned that the Statements of Environmental Values of the Ministries of Natural Resources and Environment indicate that their decisions must be consistent with an ecosystem approach and protection of significant natural heritage features and landscapes – and, therefore, they reason, the AFAA should be prescribed under the EBR. Finally, the applicants noted that the AFAA does not require a “periodic review of the impact of logging on the ecosystem integrity within the Park” and that other statutes regulating forestry, such as the CFSA, have already been prescribed under the EBR. In support of their request, the applicants attached a copy of the Forest Management Plan Summary for Algonquin Park. Ministry response
Ministry Response
In late March 2006, MNR denied the applicants’ request for review. MNR contended that the AFAA is “predominantly administrative” in nature, concluding that there would be negligible harm to the environment and the significant features in the Park if it doesn’t undertake the review. The AFA must conduct its operations consistent with the Provincial Park Act and relevant policies, the Algonquin Park Management Plan, and the CFSA and relevant policies and manuals, the ministry wrote, all of which are already prescribed and subject to the public participation requirements of the EBR. The Registry is used to notify the public of the public participation opportunities, MNR stated, adding that sustainable forest management is a requirement of the Recreation-Utilization zone in Algonquin Park.
MNR also denied the review on the basis that forest management activities are subject to periodic review, and that every five years the ministry reviews the Agreement. In addition, an Independent Forest Audit is conducted every five years, during which time the public has an opportunity to raise issues.
ECO Comment
The ECO disagrees with MNR’s decision that the AFAA is “predominantly administrative” in nature and therefore does not need to be prescribed under the EBR. The legislative framework that governs forestry operations in Algonquin Park is a series of interconnected components that includes the PPA and CFSA and related policies and manuals, the AFAA, AFA’s Forest Resource Licence, the Agreement and contracts with the local logging companies. The AFAA is the piece of the framework that designates the AFA as the agency responsible for harvesting timber in Algonquin Park; however, MNR has not recognized the environmental significance of this Act, nor has it prescribed the Act under the EBR. Since any future decision to limit or end logging in the Park would also need to address the existing legal obligation of the provincial government under the AFAA to supply timber, the ECO believes that the AFAA should be prescribed for the full rights under the EBR.
The ECO recognizes that many of the environmentally significant activities conducted by the AFA are already subject to statutes and policies that are prescribed under the EBR and subject to periodic review. However, AFA’s Forest Resource Licence and the Agreement are unique instruments – the only forestry-related approvals that apply in a provincial park – and are exempt from the requirements of the EBR. The ECO believes that these instruments are environmentally significant and should be designated for public notice and comment under the EBR, and be subject to applications for review and investigation.
Although MNR failed to respond to the applicants’ concern that the AFAA does not require a “periodic review of the impact of logging on the ecosystem integrity with the Park,” the ministry does recognize that the ecological integrity of provincial parks is an issue deserving attention. In June 2006, the Provincial Parks and Conservation Reserves Act, which requires parks to be managed in a manner that maintains ecological integrity as a first priority, received Royal Assent.
Algonquin Park represents some of the best and most beautiful natural heritage in Ontario. However, the zones where logging is banned aren’t much more than a few “islands” within the Park. Furthermore, logging roads that provide access into the heart of the Park are a corridor for invasive alien species and increase the risk to sensitive Park features such as the interior trout lakes and the endangered wood turtle.
Despite the threat that logging poses to achieving ecological integrity, MNR plans to continue to allow commercial forestry operations in Algonquin Park. However, the ministry is considering a public review of the management of the Park and is seeking advice on how to “lighten” logging’s footprint. The ECO urges MNR to proceed with a comprehensive public review of its policy to allow logging in the Park and to consider how the proposed park management goal of ecological integrity would be achieved if this policy is allowed to continue. (A detailed description of this application is found in the Supplement to this report, pages 233-240.)
| This is an article from the 2005/06 Annual Report to the Legislature from the Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. |
Citing This Article:
Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 2006. "Regulating Logging in Algonquin Park." Neglecting our Obligations, ECO Annual Report, 2005-06. Toronto, ON : Environmental Commissioner of Ontario. 128-132.
