Grand Falls-Windsor -
Now that the province has expropriated land once used by AbitibiBowater in central Newfoundland, it has a whole lot of hectares to manage.
Which is why the provincial government recently created two new positions, a Crown lands management officer and a Crown lands management specialist.
They will help with site and field inspections and other related management aspects of the recently acquired lands.
"We've had a lot of calls from people who have remote cottages," said Environment and Conservation Minister Charlene Johnson.
"They were paying a lease fee to Abitibi and people were wondering what they wanted to do with that, and so on. We're telling people to come forward and bring in your Crown title, and we can get that processed and turn that over into our provincial registry, and pay the lease to the provincial government," Johnson said.
She said Crown land is a valuable resource.
"We felt that having those two people in the area would ... manage the land effectively," Johnson said.
"And given the economic situation in Grand Falls-Windsor, it's great to contribute to employment in the area as well."
One group watching the new positions with interest is the Exploits Valley Economic Development Corp.
Vice-chairman Walwin Blackmore said he thinks it will help to have people on the ground in the area.
"It is a brand new situation with the land and not one that can be dealt with at a distance," he said.
"There is a lot of land that before this wasn't available, because it was in the past controlled by Abitibi. There could be a lot of uses, creative use, for that land."
The Advertiser
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
.jpg){kind=small}
