The Coast Sustainability Trust fund needs to come out of limbo and be used as compensation for job loss, pension bridging, early retirement and retraining, says North Coast MLA Gary Coons.
“There are people on the islands that need access to that funding right now, not years into the future,” said Coons. “The truth is, most of those jobs are already gone, so people need help now.”
Speaking to Agriculture and Lands Minister Pat Bell in the legislature, Coons expressed concerns passed on to him by workers and contractors who were affected by land use designation changes who have, so far, been unable to access the funds that were promised to them. The funding should be available for the workers and some of the contractors on the islands that need it for compensation for job loss or pension bridging or early retirement or retraining.
“I don’t think it is appropriate for the government to ask people who have lost their jobs to wait until 2009 to be able to access funds through the Eco-system Based Management Matching Account,” said Coons. “The government needs to take a second look at how to disperse these funds in a sensible way that actually helps communities transition.”
The original Coast Sustainability Trust (the Original Trust) was established in 2002 by the Province of British Columbia to mitigate adverse impacts arising from Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) land use planning decisions in the Central Coast, North Coast, Queen Charlotte Islands and Haida Gwaii. Due to a timeline constraint about $12 million was transferred out of the mitigation fund and was not available for those on the North Coast and HG/QCI.
“I think that the way that the Coast Sustainability Trust has been handled so far is arbitrary and ineffective, and I have asked the government to reconsider their decision in regards to workers and contractors on the islands,” said Coons. “The bottom line is, that fund was established to help communities, and if it is failing to do so, it is failing to live up to its purpose. The government needs to legislate that the full mitigation funds, close to $12 million, that were transferred over, go to the workers who lost out. ”