The New Democrats are calling for Forests Minister Rich Coleman to suspend all removal of private lands from Tree Farm Licenses until Auditor General John Doyle has completed his investigation into whether the public interest is served by those releases.

The Auditor General today announced that he will look into the release of 28,000 hectares from TFLs controlled by Western Forest Products.

“While the Auditor General does his work, the sensible thing to do would be to suspend the removal of all Tree Farm License lands,” said NDP Forestry Critic Bob Simpson. “If the Auditor General determines that the public interest has been poorly served, it would compound the problem to have further private lands released in the interim.”

Late last month, Opposition Leader Carole James called on the Auditor General to examine the release of private lands. Forests Minister Rich Coleman has repeatedly refused to re-examine his decision.

“Thanks to the leadership of the Opposition, and to the courage of the Auditor General, we’ll have a full investigation into who actually benefited from this giveaway of a public trust,” said Simpson.

“The Forests Minister continues to exhibit no concern for the public interest, and is more concerned about looking after the interests of big B.C. Liberal party donors.”