Bio Economic Conference Wraps

Environment Minister George Heyman took to the podium at the Bio-Economy Conference this morning with a singular message:

“It’s much better to take waste and turn it into economic advantage than to simply turn it into pollution.”

Heyman is referred to the continued practice of the primary sector, the harvesting and milling industries, to burn the residuals left behind after a block has been harvested.

“We often find ourselves in a situation where licences are ready to burn the fibre and they’ll give a phone five minutes before and say ‘If you don’t pay us ten dollars tonne, we’re going to burn it.’ or ‘If you don’t come and get it tomorrow, we’re going to burn it.’ Well, we can’t operate like that,” says Gordon Murray, Executive Director for the Wood Pellet Association of Canada.