Rainforest Solutions Project

Promoting conservation and economic alternatives in British Columbia's Great Bear Rainforest

News

Workers displaced by coastal land preservation to be compensated

April 3, 2002

(Victoria, BC) – The sustainable resource management minister has announced a $35-million trust fund to help workers displaced by coastal land use plans.

Stan Hagen says the trust fund honours commitments made by the N.D.P. The New Democrats promised the money just hours before calling the provincial election. The fund arose from a decision to save a large portion of the central coast – what environmentalists like to call the Great Bear Rainforest.

Hagen says the money will help workers and communities affected by not only the central coast land use plans, but the north coast and Queen Charlotte Island plans as well.

Environmentalists are sounding the alarm over the central coast plan, claiming not much has changed on the ground and clear-cut logging continues.