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LUPP volunteers being paid $200 a day

The Council of the Haida Nation is paying Land Use Planning Process volunteers $200 a day to make the process more fair.
"Some of the interest groups have paid employees or hired consultants while other interests have volunteer representation," says LUPP co-chair Tamara Rullin. "The inequity of this is impacting the process, and we are actively seeking funding to rectify this situation. In the interim hardship funding, equivalent to the approximate lost wages (averaged) has been granted from within the budget for those participant that are neither salaried or supported."
The province doesn't normally pay land use planning participants. In other regions, representatives are paid by the sector they represent, says Ms Rullin. However the process is different here because the forum has "interest based" not "sector based" representation. This means that not all the people at the table represent an industry that can pay for their time.
The CHN has been looking for money to help volunteers since the process began last September. This interim funding will cover the meetings in January, February and March.
"As this solution is only temporary, a proposal for funding has been submitted to both the South Moresby Forest Replacement Account, as well as the Gwaii Trust Society," as well as private foundations and institutions says Ms Rullin.