Day Three
Saint John 
November 20, 2003 

Day 3, apart from Peter Salonius of the Nashwaak Watershed Association Inc., was filled with people supporting JDI. Story below.

Randy Sheperd, Tree Planting foreman, gave a colour-photo power point presentation on the 14 person crew and 1 foreman and their daily routine for 12-13 weeks of planting. He did say he understood that the Juniper nursery, which put out 25 million trees this past year, is intending to build 3 more nurseries.

The Saint John Board of Trade, represented by Bob McVicker, President and Doug MacDonald, president of the Business Development Committee, stated that a vibrant forest industry was key to Saint John's economic conditions and mentioned significant taxes paid and money spent in the community.

Peter Salonius, of the Nashwaak Watershed Association, is a soil microbiologist. The best thing about the Jaakko-Poyry report in his estimation was the recommendation to have public consultations because DNRE in the past has not solicited any public input. Major recommendations of the J-P report, said Salonius, are a continuation of the same: consumption of wood based on the economic expansionist theory which assumes that companies can grow forever - a false assumption. There are limits to growth, and using the analogy of the petroleum industry to show that the overall increased consumption now exceeds more than the industry has discovered in the last decade! The forest cannot keep expanding. He cited a Colorado State professor who says that modern food production is "a technique to use petroleum to produce food". Given the inevitability of scarcity of future energy resources within the next 45 years (approx. the same time it will take to take to increase the wood yield if the recommendations of the J-P report were implemented) wood will be more valuable for its energy. He suggested that JDI was already in the energy (petroleum) business and that he would suggest that JDI look at the forest for potential in the hydrogen economy. It is hard to do justice to this presentation. MLA Targett commented: "Thank you for bringing this (discussion) to a whole new level of thought".

Stephen Chase, City Councillor in Saint John, member of the environment committee emphasized employment in the forestry sector. He presented part of a video to promote jobs as forest rangers and forestry technicians, then showed graphs indicating the decline in the manufacturing industry in Saint John.

Captain Al Soppitt, President and CEO of the Saint John Port Authority, gave an overview of the economic output and input of the Port of Saint John - presently at 50% capacity. 70% of all NB wood products flow through Saint John port. He also mentioned the recent investment in Maine ports of Eastport and Portland present potential duplication of facilities.

Mayor Shirley McAlary of the City of Saint John indicated that 1400 jobs in Saint John are directly connected to the forest industry and there are 400 turnover jobs coming up at JDI. She also reiterated the basic economic facts surrounding the presence of JD Irving's headquarters for the forestry industry in Saint John.

Entreprise Saint John was represented by Raymond French, Chairperson. He emphasized the basic economic facts mentioned by other presenters in Saint John.

The Saint John Regional Hospital Foundation's Executive Director, Tim Cameron, reported on the philanthropic activities of the various forest product associations in Saint John, stating that they were very generous.