Federal Court - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure Developments ...

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available sustainable timber. When they did not like the results, the DIAND staff changed the inputs
and re-ran the computer model until they achieved a result that they “liked”. The volume that was
finally achieved, after the manipulation of the “runs”, was 128,000 m 3 . This resulted in a number
based on the personal preferences of the DIAND employees and not on science.
[780] This is particularly suspicious in light of the petition of 1995. That petition complained of
2010 FC 495 (CanLII)
the decision by the Department to establish an AAC of 450,000 m 3 . The petitioners demanded a
return to historical timber harvest levels. The Department expressly declined to change the AAC by
returning to the historical harvest levels.
[781] In the response to this petition, Exhibit P-75, the Department noted that 128,000 m 3 , was the
historical volume of roundwood actually cut in 1992. The AAC was based on a “comprehensive
timber inventory” and was supported on the basis that it represented a small fraction of the available
sustainable timber.
[782] The previously mentioned manipulations of the TSA resulted in a change to the harvest
ceiling to 128,000 m 3 . This change was based on the TSA results regarding the volume of available
sustainable timber. The new harvest level of 128,000 m 3 was the same level that had been expressly
rejected in the response to the 1995 petition. By this manipulation, the employees of DIAND
circumvented the establishment of an AAC based on science, not on historical harvest levels, and
substituted their own preference.