The Federation of Outpoints of Quebec notes that the proliferation of unretained forest paths is a burden for provincial provinces.
The Director General of the Organization, Dominic Dugré, argues that 80 % of them are not adequately maintained. The Federation believes that the government should look into these paths in its reform of the forest regime.
The maintenance currently, repairs is concentrated on approximately 20 % of forest paths. We have been talking about forest paths for a long time and with the reform of the forest regime. The Minister wants to introduce the principle of user-payer. It is a good principle, but you should know what we maintain, where, at what cost and for how long, because 450,000 km of path, it is a lot
said Dominic Dugré in an interview on the program Public square.
According to him, there is too much
forest roads on the outfit territories. The Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean has around forty outfitters.
Too many paths, it has impacts. It has impacts, it has costs on the provider who, even if he does not use them all these paths, there must still be a certain surveillance because there are security questions
recalled the director general of the Federation of Outpoints of Quebec, adding that the closure of a path requires ministerial authorization.
Over time, the forest industry has developed several forest paths without it being well maintained.
I think that a certain part of the population takes for granted that from the moment that a path is built on public land, it belongs to everyone and we should leave it open […] But that is without counting the incredible area that these paths have, and maintenance. These are questions that come back
added Mr. Dugré.
Dominic Dugré believes that it is possible to combine the forest sector and wildlife tourism, in addition to giving way to territory conservation areas. He hopes that the government and all the actors will better plan everything that affects forest paths to avoid the stake of poorly maintained paths.
