Not enough timber and fibre is being made available for B.C. mills, says Conservative Forestry critic and Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Ward Stamer, who on Friday pressured Forests Minister Ravi Parmar to change how timber and fibre is accessed in the province.
The province set a goal of harvesting 45 million cubic metres of fibre annually, but the Conservatives say they are on track to harvest just 30 million.
“That’s not enough fibre to keep the province’s sawmills running, and likely why we have to import wood chips from the U.S. to keep our pulp mills running,” Stamer said in an Oct. 31 press release. “We need significant changes in how we access fibre in this province, not just address backlogs after logging has taken place.”
Specifically, Stamer said B.C. needs to start harvesting fire-damaged timber immediately, “not years down the road.” He said BC Timber Sales needs to deliver 20 per cent of the annual allowable cut, “not a fraction of that.”
“And finally, we need leadership from this NDP government, not finger-pointing and blaming everything on Donald Trump,” Stamer added, while warning of a “completely collapsed” forestry sector in the future if changes aren’t made.
In an email to Black Press Media, the Ministry of Forests did cast blame on the U.S. president, but also on a number of other factors.
The ministry said the forestry sector is under pressure from all sides, with adverse forces including climate change, lumber prices that are in constant flux, and “Donald Trump’s trade war putting livelihoods at risk.”
Though the ministry views Trump’s lumber tariffs and duties as a threat to B.C.’s industry, Premier David Eby chose to back down from a planned advertising campaign in the U.S. that would have offered Americans a critique of those levies. On Monday Eby obliquely acknowledged that the strategy hadn’t worked when Ontario Premier Doug Ford ran anti-tariff ads during the first two games of the World Series. Trump responded to those ads with a threat of a 10-per-cent, across-the-board tariff hike on Canadian goods.
“I knew that it was a source of anxiety for many people, including potentially the federal government, given the reaction to the Ontario tariffs,” Eby said, explaining the decision to pull the ads was his, and not a request from Ottawa.
Stamer calls out Minister Parmar
Stamer, who last month declared that B.C.’s forestry industry is “in crisis” due to over-regulation, posed the question: “Can Ravi Parmar convince his boss that it’s essential to change how we access timber and fibre in this province?”
Stamer has long bemoaned the red tape in the industry, saying Friday that the government must simplify the harvesting process rather than further expand the network of rules and regulations he believes is choking the industry.
In its response to Black Press, the ministry conceded that “layers of red tape” built up over the years have hampered BC Timber Sales’ operations, frustrating many both within and outside the agency. According to the ministry, this is why a review of BC Timber Sales was pursued and a task force created to provide recommendations on how to best move forward.
The ministry said it is moving ahead with the task force’s recommendations, which include doubling the dedicated fibre supply for value-added wood manufacturing companies to 20 per cent of BC Timber Sales forestry licences; making it easier for smaller companies to bid on auctions in groups; auctioning commercial thinning sales that improve forest health by reducing the understory; and improving the use of logging residuals like branches and tree tops to support sectors like the pulp sector.
As for the well-short 30 million cubic metre harvesting figure the Conservatives highlighted, the ministry said record wildfires, market conditions, more conservation measures and the end of the beetle kill harvest have all led to less timber available for forestry operations.
In combatting this combination of factors, the ministry pointed to its support for cutting permit applicants through a new permitting task team.
In response to Stamer’s call for immediate harvesting of fire-damaged wood, the ministry said salvage log permits of wildfire-scorched wood have been sped up to a 25-day turnaround time, down from 40 days previously.
The ministry added it is supporting commercial thinning projects that increase fibre and help make forests more resilient, while backing more projects that get economic fibre out of logging sites instead of being burned in slash piles.
— With files from Mark Page