To the Editor:
One of Stephen Harper's taxpayer-funded government TV ads brags about federal tree planting. What an insult to the former PFRA employees who have served with excellence at the Government of Canada tree farm at Indian Head and who are now receiving notices that they've just been fired!
Sadly right now, they are putting together the last shipments ever to be distributed from that historic tree farm. They'll save nickels and dimes - less than the cost of just a handful of their vicious attack ads - but they'll obliterate a valuable prairie land conservation and management service which has helped enrich Canada since 1901.
Selling it off is bad policy in itself, but even worse, the government has no open, fair, transparent and business-like process for doing so in a proper manner. They are so utterly incompetent, they don't even have a complete and accurate inventory of the land, buildings and other assets that they own at Indian Head. They're working from information that's two decades out of date.
In addition to growing millions of trees to support farmers and prairie agriculture, the Indian Head site has also been the venue for world-leading agro-forestry science and research. The Conservatives say they will continue that work, but there is no business plan for doing so and they're in the process of vandalizing the facilities that would be required.
They claim a tree farm is out of date and no longer needed. But just last year, farmers ordered more than three million seedlings from Indian Head, and there was active demand for at least two million more. Orders in this last year may well skyrocket beyond seven million.
Over 10,000 people have petitioned the government to change its decision. It should accept that sound advice. At the very least, the divestiture process should be changed.
The tree farm is not some wreck to be junked. It is a hugely valuable piece of property with enormous current value and future potential.
They should slow down. They should maintain tree farm operations for at least a year or two more, keep the assets and expertise in top-notch condition, and give adequate time for decent proposals to come forward that will preserve and continue the service long into the future.
Serious and respected prairie-based individuals and organizations are trying their best to develop sensible plans for taking over, but they won't have a chance if the Harper regime continues its headlong rush just to dump it!
Ralph Goodale, MP, Wascana, SK.
