In 1993, the Ontario government set up a group to review forest policy in Ontario. The result was the Ontario Forest Policy Panel that wrote the report "Diversity: Forests People, Communities – A Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework for Ontario."
From the document: People in many walks of life have observed that Ontario's forest policy is out of step with new visions for the forests. Progress in interpreting the concept of sustainable development for Ontario's forests has been made, but forest policy is still focused on attitudes and conditions from decades ago. Moreover, new forest issues have been emerging for which there is no policy, and exercises to address these needs have been poorly coordinated with existing policy.
Given this situation, the Government of Ontario decided it was time to give overall direction to the many issue-oriented, single-purpose policy exercises going on in the province. A fresh look at what the people of Ontario want from and for their forests, and how forest policy should be developed, was needed. To do this, the Government established the Forest Policy Panel to work with the people of Ontario in developing a Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework.
The Forest Policy Panel and its Mandate
The Forest Policy Panel was set up as a small, creative team of energetic individuals with a wide range of expertise and skills to apply to the task of determining new directions for Ontario's forest policy. Its members were: Co-chair Margaret Wanlin, a community development consultant from Thunder Bay; Co-chair Peter Duinker, a forest policy professor from Thunder Bay; Tom Clark, a consulting ecologist from Bracebridge; and Fred Miron, a labour union executive from Toronto.
In January 1992, the Panel set out to understand Ontario's forest milieu and people's expectations, and to combine that understanding with the concept of long-term sustainability. The Framework was conceived as a vehicle to communicate a synthesis of new directions and new thinking about all the forests in the province, an approach for guiding forest policy into the 21st century. It was to speak to citizens broadly and especially to forest users, managers and policy-makers. To forest users and interested citizens, it would convey a new forest culture, a shared basis of social action that was already well-developed in peoples' minds and actions but not yet recorded in a single document. To forest managers, it would set the tone for new ideals and a more considered ethic toward forest ecosystems. Finally, for forest policy-makers it would determine the priorities in forest policy, and outline a plan for generating and regenerating policy over the long term.
Citation: Ontario Forest Policy Panel. 1993. Diversity: Forests People, Communities – A Comprehensive Forest Policy Framework for Ontario. Queen’s Printer for Ontario. ISBN 0-7778-1397-1