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soo coalition

The Soo Coalition for Sustainable Forests is planting a tree and providing a plaque at the new Capilano College campus in Squamish in memory of William John Plaatjes — and is upset the Forest Ministry isn’t doing anything.

The Soo Coalition for Sustainable Forests is planting a tree and providing a plaque at the new Capilano College campus in Squamish in memory of William John Plaatjes — and is upset the Forest Ministry isn’t doing anything. "Our comment on this matter is that it seems rather shameful that our government does not respond to a request to commemorate a member of the forest industry who dies doing something constructive for our forests but will spend millions of dollars purchasing land or creating parks to commemorate people who have contributed nothing," Soo Coalition President Tom Bruusgaard writes in a letter to Forests Minister Andrew Petter. Plaatjes died while planting trees last spring. Fellow forestry workers wanted his death to be recognized. They went to the Ministry of Environment, Lands and Parks, who passed them on to the Ministry of Forests, who passed them on to the Soo Coalition. "All it required was a little thought and a few phone calls," Bruusgaard writes. "The question we have is why was the request shuffled off? Is it because they were not asking for preservation of ‘the last old growth of something, somewhere,’ they belong to a small, non-union association, they work in the forest industry, or the government simply doesn’t care about the people who work and pay taxes?"