There is an “inescapable recognition that change is needed to ensure our forest industry is sustainable,” he writes in his mandate letter for the new forests minister, Bruce Ralston.Start your day with a roundup of B.C.-focused news and opinion delivered straight to your inbox at 7 a.m., Monday to Friday.By clicking on the sign up button you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc.
“We just don’t have the time to dither anymore. We have to be much more deliberate, we have to be much more courageous and we have to be much more collaborative than we’ve ever been,” said Simpson, who served from 2005 to 2013 as the NDP and then independent member of the B.C. legislature for Cariboo North.
The forests minister at the time, Katrine Conroy, said the plans would prioritize forest health, replacing the existing system of plans developed largely by industry. The second-highest revenue over the last 15 years was recorded in 2018, when B.C. collected more than $1.2 billion on the harvest of70.7 billion cubic metres.Article content
The significant investments major forest companies including Canfor, Interfor and West Fraser have made in the United States in recent years, while curtailing operations at mills in B.C., are also “signs of the coming trouble,” Parfitt added.Article content Today, there’s not enough fibre to sustainably feed those mills, said Simpson, a member of a new council appointed to advise the B.C. government on how to support workers and communities affected by changes in the forests industry.
The province is “loath” to backstop the loss of that revenue, Simpson said, so it will have to provide targeted and specific supports depending on the community. There is a medium-density fibreboard or MDF facility in Quesnel, for example. It uses waste material from sawmills to create panels, which are shipped to California for further manufacturing into products such as door trim, Simpson said.
Are you kidding? If you've ever been 100kms off of a highway, on a retired service road you may notice that there are trees there. When you fly north from Vancity to Dawson City, all you see is trees. Or EDM to Dawson City all trees past Westlock. This is horseshit.
Duh!