Local Citizen's Committee Terms of Reference

A local citizens' committee (LCC) will be established to assist the plan author and the interdisciplinary planning team in the preparation of the Forest Management Plan. The committee will be a standing advisory committee which may be specifically established for the particular management unit for which the plan is being prepared, or it may be a district committee which is established to assist in the preparation of plans for all management units in the district.

The membership of the Local Citizens' Committee will include a number of local citizens representing a range and balance of interests. Members will be appointed by the MNR District Manager, drawing from nominations provided by local interest groups. The main interests on the committee should include: local businesses tourism industry anglers and hunters native communities forest industry municipalities trappers and other resource users other Crown Land recreationalists forest industry trade unions woodworkers naturalists small independent loggers Chamber of Commerce member or Economic Development Officer other interest groups: and the general public

The purpose of the local citizens' committee is to participate as an integral part of the forest management planning process by:

(a) ensuring that all local interests are effectively communicated to all others involved in forest management planning;

(b) increasing the effectiveness of the five stage public consultation process by participating in its implementation, and in the consideration of any additional formal public consultation opportunities that would be useful, in the context of local circumstances and needs

(c) participating in the identification and analysis of management alternatives

(d) participating in the development of the values map(s)

(e) promoting integration of all interests by participating in evaluation of trade-offs to be made during the planning process, and the resolution of problems, differences and conflicts as early as possible in the planning process

(f) assisting in monitoring the performance of plan implementation; and

(g) providing advice to the MNR District Manager when discretionary decisions must be made (e.g.. issue resolution, responses to "bump up" requests, and the categorization of amendments)

The local citizens' committee may nominate a representative of the committee to serve as a member of the interdisciplinary planning team, and other committee members may attend planning team meetings as observers. Joint meetings of the plan author, the planning team and the committee will be held at agreed upon stages of the planning process, and representatives of the committee will attend all public information centres which are held during public consultation in the preparation of the forest management plan.

The local citizens' committee will develop its own procedural rules in order to meet its responsibilities during forest management planning and plan implementation, including such matters as election of chair, frequency of meetings, meeting agendas, attendance at information centres and circulation of information among members of the committee.

Members of the local citizens' committee will be reimbursed by MNR for reasonable out-of-pocket expenses in connection with their participation. The committee representative who serves as a member of the planning team will be provided reasonable per diem for attendance at planning team meetings. MNR will provide the necessary office support to the committee, including secretarial assistance for the production of periodic reports, in order to assist the committee in the efficient and effective conduits of its affairs.

The MNR district Manager will ensure that any information required by the committee will be provided as it becomes available to enable the committee to achieve its purpose. In the early phases of plan preparation, a summary of background information for the management unit, including data on timber and non timber resources, will be provided to the committee. At various stages during plan preparation, the local citizens' committee will produce reports of its activities, including discussions of the problems and issues addressed by the committee, assessments of the co-operation provided to the committee by the ministry, and assessments of the effectiveness of the committee structure and any recommendations for changes. These reports and all other documentation produced by the committee will be available for public review by interested persons, and will form part of the supplementary documentation to the forest management plan. Summaries of these reports will be available at the information centres of Stages Two and Three of the public consultation process. Summary reports of the committee's activities will also form part of the forest management plan summary which is produced for each draft and approved forest management plan.

Each forest management plan and forest management plan summary will contain a list of the local citizens' committee, and their affiliations, if any. Each forest management plan will also contain a brief statement at the beginning of the plan which reports on the committee's general agreement or disagreement with the plan, and indicates that the committee's report is included in the supplementary documentation of the plan.

As stated in the introductory paragraph of this section, the local citizens' committee is a standing advisory committee which has an ongoing role during the term of the plan. In particular, the committee will assist in monitoring the performance of plan implementation, and if amendments to the forest management plan are requires, the committee will provide advice to the MNR District Manager when discretionary decisions must be made (e.g.. categorization of amendments, issue resolution, and responses to "bump up" requests). The representative of the committee on the planning team will also participate in any annual insect pest management planning which may be undertaken.