WHERE ARE THEY NOW

A CHALLEGE FOR FORESTERS OF 1982


On March 24, 1982, there was a report printed in the Nipigon Gazette on a speech given by Jack Stokes, MPP Lake Nipigon, to the Lakehead University Forestry graduating class.

He challenged the foresters by asking "Is forestry a profession?"

His talk was somewhat prophetic about mill closures in "Hearst, Chapleau or even Thunder Bay".

University and Government foresters knew that the writing was on the wall for some parts of Ontario. Stokes provided a politician's voice.

"Can industry and the Ministry of Natural Resources assure these one industry towns that the resource will be there in perpetuity, that allowable cuts and sustained yields are not just empty complacency? Will you as foresters be able to say to your children that you managed the resource well, that you treated it as one that was infinite and renewable?"

The above is an excerpt from page 187 -188 , of  Don MacAlpine's  book , Part I - Just Business
ISBN-13: ISBN 978-0-9782568-0-7

A self-published book, 2011, 877 pages.  Part One of a Trilogy: A personalized chronicle of the Decay of Moral and Legal Responsibilities of the Canadian and North American Institutions of Business, Democracy and Justice  D. MacAlpine  Box 127,  Nipigon , Ontario P0T 2J0

Where are you now. And, what are you telling your children about Dubreuilville, Ontario.  A one-industry town celebrating 50 years of existence this year, except someone else was given their wood supply in the grand Ontario wood supply competition.

In the 1991 census, Dubreuilville ranked first in Ontario's forest-dependent communities (ranked by percentage of forestry workers) . For a population of 985 and a labour force of 895, forestry workers numbered 740, or 83% of their little town population was so employed. Their work was a sawmill.