Pictou Centre PC MLA Pat Dunn constituency office window with ‘Friends of a New Northern Pulp’ sign on Monday, March 21, 2022. Photo contributed.
The ‘Friends of a New Northern Pulp’ sign in the window of the New Glasgow constituency office of African Nova Scotian Affairs Minister and Pictou Centre MLA Pat Dunn probably won’t be there much longer.
星期五，然后再说一周，Halifax审查员接受了选区办公室的照片，其中来自“新的北方纸浆的朋友”的标志，这对Nova Scotia环境和气候变化（NSECC）至关重要。
Speaking on the Todd Veinotte Showon CityNews 95.7 last week, Robin Wilber, chair of thelobby groupand president of Elmsdale Lumber, went public with his disdain for the ‘bureaucrats’ in NSECC, and the environmental process that the Paper Excellence company Northern Pulp has to undergo before it can re-open its 55-year-old pulp mill in Pictou County.
Pat Dunn
The Examiner contacted Dunn’s constituency office for a statement about the presence of the sign, to ask whether there was anything unusual about a government minister promoting a lobby group that is critical of the provincial government, and that seems intent on influencing an ongoing environmental assessment.
Dunn’s assistant said that only Dunn could speak about the sign, and that he had never hid his support for Northern Pulp. She said she would pass on the message about the Examiner’s query to Dunn. As of this writing, there has been no call back from the minister.
The Examiner also contacted the provincial Executive Council Office for comment about the sign, and received an immediate reply from Catherine Klimek, Premier Tim Houston’s press secretary.
In an email, Klimek wrote, “Neither the Premier or government caucus feel it is appropriate to display materials of this nature in government or constituency offices.”
“We have followed up with the member to immediately remove the sign,” said Klimek. “We will also communicate this message to the entire caucus to let them know that this is inappropriate.”
北方纸浆'朋友对NSECC不友好
在他于3月18日的托德·武塔的采访中，Wilber对省级环境部门表示，“他们没有这个领域的专家，但他们想控制它，就像他们最后一次做过的那样。”
“It’s absolutely clear to the forest industry in Nova Scotia the plan was in the beginning to run them out of time, and run them out of town,” Wilber said, “And that’s exactly what they did, and that’s exactly what they’re trying to do here.”
Wilber was referring to theprevious environmental assessment processfor a new effluent treatment facility, a process from which Northern Pulp withdrew in April 2020. It did so after Nova Scotia Environment decided in December in 2019 that Northern Pulp needed to prepare an Environmental Assessment Report, “pursuant to Section 18(b) of the Environmental Assessment Regulations.”
2021年12月，北方纸浆后不久 - 及其父母卓越的加拿大控股和赫维投资（荷兰），这是Multibilionaire Sino-Indonesian Widjaja家族的多亿美元企业帝国的一部分 - 推出a lawsuit against Nova Scotiafor $450 million in the Nova Scotia Supreme Court, Northern Pulp registereda new project对于与NSECC进行环境评估，这次是“轧机转型”。
Last week, NSECC issued thefinal Terms of Reference(TOR) for the preparation of an environmental assessment report for the mill transformation project, and did not give in a series of audacious demands from Northern Pulp for changes to the draft TOR.
As theHalifax Examiner reported在3月15日早晨文件中，这些要求包括在环境评估过程正在进行中，并提前清除限制，以便提前举行项目。
Independent Nova Scotian environmental consultant Peter Oram has stated clearly in签名的证词这不是NSECC Reference typically specify.
It was the refusal by NSECC to cave to Northern Pulp demands for changes to the Terms of Reference that seems to have riled Wilber and the “Friends of a New Northern Pulp” lobby group he chairs.
Said Wilber on Todd Veinotte’s show:
It’s clear the present rules are broken. No company in the future will ever look at Nova Scotia. In the world we’re seen as closed for business.
And:
蒂姆·休斯顿在降落的时候ion he pushed [then Premier Stephen] McNeil to stop moving the goalposts, and be clear about what the demands were. And now where is he? Now he’s in power; that seems to have changed.
有关的：北方纸浆有一套新的“朋友”，但“朋友”看起来很熟悉，“新的北方纸浆”肯定看起来很像旧的北纸浆
好吧，正如事实证明，蒂姆休斯顿非常多，随着他的新闻秘书告诉审查员，他对Dunn的选区办公室窗口的“新的北方纸浆的朋友”的存在并不深刻。
Nor, apparently, is Houston impressed by the ‘Friends” criticism of Nova Scotia’s environmental assessment process.
Klimek告诉审查员，曾经北方纸浆提出其环境评估，将由独立小组进行评估。
这正是NSECC最终参考的环境评估的最终职权如何发生。
“当Tim Houston在反对派时，他推动了[那么总理斯蒂芬]麦克尔尼尔停止移动球门柱，并清楚地了解所需的需求。现在他在哪里？现在他是力量;这似乎改变了。“
The effect he’s observing is that the PC ministers get fully briefed on the issue. Once they have all the information from NSECC staff and not just BS spin from lobbyists it becomes a lot harder to blow hot air about it. They know know what the liberals knew then. That’s why you don’t hear the liberals blowing hot air about ‘moving goalposts’. They were just in power and know this issue back to front.