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Welcome to the British Columbia section of the website
This section of the website is being maintained by the Stand Up for the North Committee of North-Central British Columbia. The Committee would like to take this opportunity to thank S.T.R.O.N.G. for providing us with the opportunity to information about our Committee and the forestry situation in BC.
About the Stand Up For the North Committee
The Committee is a non-partisan community group based in North-Central British Columbia that is made up of volunteers who are committed to renewing and revitalizing our region and our forests for the benefit of all. It was formed in the Spring of 2006 in response to the looming crisis facing forestry-based communities in the region; and, since then, working with other groups, has spearheaded the organizing of a number of events, including a region-wide conference on the pine beetle epidemic, meetings, rallies, and other activities.
In April of 2008, the Committee organized meetings in three communities (Prince George, Fort St. James and Mackenzie), featuring Al Simard, the President of STRONG, as well as speakers from the community and local forest industry. In May, working with others, it played a key role in the organizing of a huge "Save Our Community" rally in Mackenzie (which has had all of its major mills shut down over the past year) that attracted over 1000 people.
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A selection of articles from the news media on forestry in British Columbia
Mackenzie demands help
Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
Friday, 23 May 2008
MACKENZIE -- Nearly one-fifth of the 4,700 Mackenzie residents showed up to a rally Friday in an effort to save the community.
They called on the provincial and federal governments to tie logs to the community, ban raw log exports and extend unemployment benefits to laid-off workers for two years.
Some workers will be losing their unemployment benefits at Christmas, and community members are also worried about a possible exodus of families when the school year ends in June.
The community has been the hardest hit in B.C. by an unprecedented downturn in the forest sector, which has been led by a collapse in the U.S. housing market.
"I really hope you get what you want because we really need the help," said Mackenzie Mayor Stephanie Killam as she kicked off a long list of speakers that included community members, union leaders and politicians in front of the roughly 800 people gathered for the rally.
Three of the community's four saw mills are shut down -- both of AbitibiBowater's sawmills and one of Canfor's two sawmills. AbitibiBowater's newsprint mill is also down, as well as Pope & Talbot's pulp mill, which is in receivership. The closures have put more than 1,000 workers off the job. That doesn't include the impact on loggers, truckers and suppliers.
Residents attending the rally stated a consistent theme: They do not want to leave the community they love, and they want more help.
LeAnne Reid, a small business owner, said when she moved to Mackenzie 17 years ago the community embraced her. She raised her children here, and said she wished there was another day in the week so they could do more sports and activities.
Reid said she had no choice but to ride out the troubles in Mackenzie, and invited the crowd to do the same. "We need to stick together," she said.
Prince George North MLA Pat Bell gave a promise in front of the rally crowd that raw logs are not going to leave Mackenzie.
He also laid out a series of initiatives he hoped to roll out in the next 60 to 90 days, including hiring a consultant to pave the way for one-year contracts for Mackenzie workers in Fort McMurray. Also on his list are starting up a log home building sector and cultured stone business.
Bell, the agriculture and lands minister whose riding includes Mackenzie, stressed now is not the time to place blame. "Today it is more important than ever that we work together," he said.
However, national union leader Dave Coles took a swipe at Bell, saying the B.C. government is a cause of the forest sector problem. "When you disconnect the trees from the jobs, the jobs go,"
Coles told the rally, referring to the Liberals' sweeping forest policy changes introduced in 2004.
He said the government should be held accountable at the ballot box. British Columbians next go to the polls in May 2009.
NDP leader Carole James also said the province needs more community-friendly forest policies. When communities like Mackenzie and Fort St. James struggle, the whole province struggles, she said. "We need the provincial government to wake up and see that," said James.
NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson added that B.C. Liberal government should pony up $129 million to match the federal funds set aside to aid single-industry communities hurt by the forest downturn. The provincial government could also send a message to companies like
AbitibiBowater, headquartered in Quebec and North Carolina, that if they don't want to run the mills they are not going to get the timber.
Bell dismissed the NDP assertions, saying there were jobs and growing investment in the forest sector before the downturn. "They have the the luxury of standing back in the cheap seats and being critical, I don't get to do that," he said.
Alf Wilkins, a laid-off AbitibiBowater sawmill worker and rally organizer, called the event a success, saying the community is getting attention. He said he was also glad to see Bell putting actions on the table.
"You can always look at the negative of everything -- you got to look at the positive. That's what this community is about," he said. "When (Bell) says the logs are going to be tied to the community, I think the community believes him. Let's hope that it happens."
Bob Kallis, another AbitibiBowater laid-off sawmill worker came to the rally with his young daughter. "It's good to see everyone coming together, pulling together," said Kallis, who is gearing up for retraining as a heavy equipment operator that will give him skills to work in the mining sector as well as the forest sector.
Community members are also hoping to hang on until Terrane Metal's $917-million Mount Milligan nearby gold and copper mine is built, perhaps in two to three years if its gets the green-light from provincial and federal regulators.
"The last thing I want to do is leave Mackenzie," said Kallis, who moved the community in 1991 from Vancouver.
Highlights of the Mackenzie save-our-community rally resolutions:
- Establish forest policies that tie logs to the community.
- Ban raw log exports.
- Extend unemployment benefits two years past their normal expiry or until the forest sector recovers.
- Ottawa and Victoria should recognize the huge economic contribution from communities like Mackenzie and Fort St. James by ensuring that health, education, social services, road maintenance and other services are maintained.
- Ensure that forest companies re-invest substantially in all their operations. Incentives should be put in place to reward those companies.
- Reform or cancel the softwood lumber agreement with the U.S.
- Increase training and funding training and retraining displaced mill workers, loggers and others hit by the forest downturn.
Make comprehensive reforestation and silviculture a top priority.
- Ensure secure access to timber for value-added wood production.
- Ensure sustainable forestry practices that maintains the long-term timber supply and a healthy environment, and minimizes waste.
- More input and control on forest policy decisions for workers, contractors, municipalities and northern and rural communities.
Bad news just getting worse
Robert Barron, The Daily News
Published: Friday, May 02, 2008
The bad news in the coastal forest industry just doesn't seem to end as more and more companies announce layoffs and mill closures.
Just this week, the coast's largest forest company, Western Forest Products, announced it's shutting down most of its logging operations and laying off more than 800 loggers and contractors as demand for wood products continues to tumble worldwide.
Then news many in Campbell River have feared for months, with the announcement that No. 1 Paper Machine at Catalyst Paper's Elk Falls Mill will stay down indefinitely.
The company said roughly 145 hourly and staff positions will be affected.
Catalyst Paper also announced a workforce reduction of 82 positions at its mill in Crofton.
Last week, WFP shut down the small-log line at its Ladysmith mill "indefinitely," tossing 40 people out of work.
Earlier this month, Nanaimo's long-standing manufacturer of forestry equipment, Madill Equipment, declared bankruptcy, putting another approximately 190 workers on the unemployment line.
Then, of course, there's Nanaimo's Harmac pulp mill whose future remains in doubt.
As of this writing, the deadline for a deal that would have seen Harmac, which employs 530 workers, come under new ownership by Indonesia-based Asia Pulp & Paper has passed with little word, other than an explanation the delay is due to "technical reasons."
Gossip in the forest industry is that APP may no longer need the extra fibre resources they thought they did when they agreed to purchase three of Pope & Talbots pulp operations, including Harmac, in February.
Apparently, the Indonesian government has relaxed a clamp-down on harvesting of tropical hardwoods in the country, allowing APP to continue harvesting on its own land, much closer to home, for pulp fibre.
The high Canadian dollar and the ongoing slump in the U.S. housing market are being blamed for the industry downturn, but the problems go much further back than that and it's likely B.C. will never see its forest industry regain the great strength it traditionally held ever again.
Unions point to the fact that once the government released forest companies from the requirement that lumber must be processed in nearby mills in 2003, it opened the door to raw log exports. That has decimated local sawmills, as well as the pulp mills that traditionally relied on fibre from the sawmills.
But even if that decision was reversed and government once again made companies process their lumber in local mills, they probably wouldn't be able to compete in a global marketplace where state-of-the-art mills are in operation right across the border that can process lumber cheaper and faster than most of the out-of-date and labour intensive mills on the B.C. coast.
Then there's the fact that workers in Russia and China will work for about 70 cents an hour, while B.C.'s unionized forest workers do the same job for up to $30 per hour. That's why we're seeing more and more coastal mills being taken apart and shipped overseas.
It's interesting that Premier Gordon Campbell's roundtable on forestry issues is currently touring the province talking to stakeholders and looking for ways to save the province's increasingly desperate coastal industry.
I worry by the time they table their findings, there may be little left to save.
Robert Barron's column runs regularly in this space. If you would like to comment on his opinion, send your letter to letters@nanaimodailynews.com.
© The Daily News (Nanaimo) 2008
1300 People Rally in Victoria to Protect Forests
by WCWC Media
- Monday March 31, 2008 at 10:19 AM
Victoria, BC - Today over 1300 people attended BCs largest environmental protest in 15 years (since the 1993 Clayoquot protests), the "1000 Strong for Ancient Forests" rally in Victoria. The ralliers called on the BC government to protect the remaining old-growth forests in the Southwest Mainland and Vancouver Island and to ban raw log exports. After speeches from notable environmentalists and legislators, the ralliers joined hands and encircled the Legislature more than two times around...
Saturday, March 29, 2008
Biggest Environmental Protest in BC in 15 years: 1300 People Rally in Victoria to Protect Ancient Forests and to Ban Raw Log Exports
SPEAKERS included:
- Carole James (BC NDP Leader),
- Jane Sterk (BC Green Party Leader),
- Arnold Bercov (Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada, Forestry Officer),
- Roger Wiles (Youbou TimberLess Society, Director),
- Valerie Langer (Friends of Clayoquot Sound, Board Member, and ForestEthics, Forest Campaigner),
- Ken Wu (WCWC Victoria Campaign Director),
and others...
Today over 1300 people attended BCs largest environmental protest in 15 years (since the 1993 Clayoquot protests), the "1000 Strong for Ancient Forests" rally in Victoria. The ralliers called on the BC government to protect the remaining old-growth forests in the Southwest Mainland and Vancouver Island and to ban raw log exports. After the speeches, the ralliers joined hands and encircled the Legislature more than two times around.
"Today we sent an undeniably strong and decisive message to the BC Liberal government only one year before a provincial election that the fate of our ancient forests and forestry jobs can bring out more determined advocates onto the streets than any other issue right now," states Ken Wu, Campaign Director for the Western Canada Wilderness Committee in Victoria, BC.
Sometime soon BCs Ministry of Forests and Range has indicated they will be releasing new forestry plans for various coastal logging tenures (starting with the Strathcona Timber Supply Area - TSA, on Vancouver Island, and moving on to other coastal TSAs and Tree Farm Licenses - TFLs), which is an opportunity for the BC government to transition logging away from our scarce old-growth forests on the southern coast towards second-growth forests. However, Forests Minister Rich Coleman has stated that "old-growth forests are in no danger of disappearing", has made no commitments to fully ending old-growth logging anywhere, and has made no indications of enacting any concrete, legislated timelines for a transition.
Environmental ralliers were also joined by an unexpected ally - a large contingent of millworkers with the Pulp, Paper, and Woodworkers of Canada (PPWC) from the Crofton and Nanaimo (Harmac) mills. Previous environmental rallies in Victoria have including speakers from forestry unions, while forestry union rallies have included environmentalist speakers. However, previous environmental rallies have not included any significant participation by forestry workers among the general crowd.
"I am very happy that the PPWC brought out so many supporters to this rally. Ive always believed that we need to move forward together with forestry workers for a solution that works for both our ancient forests and for the thousands of timber workers on the coast. We can protect Vancouver Islands remaining old-growth forests and forestry jobs at the same time if the BC government banned raw log exports and became pro-active in helping retool sawmills to handle smaller-diameter second-growth logs, instead of simply letting all the manufacturing facilities shut down," states Ken Wu, Campaign Director of the Wilderness Committee in Victoria.
The BC governments Coastal Forest Action Plan released last October places no new restrictions on the logging of old-growth forests and instead simply increases the rate of cut of second-growth forests, reducing the harvest rotation age on Crown lands from 70-75 years down to 50-55 years. As a result, logging companies will continue to high-grade log the largest, high-value old-growth species - the giant western redcedars, Sitka spruce, and Douglas firs which are at the center of the controversy - while also logging second-growth forests at breakneck speeds.
The Coastal Forest Action Plan also increases the tax on raw log exports coming from Crown lands, which the Minister of Forests Rich Coleman estimates will reduce Crown land exports by half, but does nothing to stem the export of raw log exports from private lands which account for two thirds of raw log exports.
The Wilderness Committee is calling on the BC Liberal government to:
1. Enact legislated timelines to quickly phase-out old-growth logging on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland. 75% of the productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island have already been logged, including 90% of the valley bottoms where the largest trees grow, according to satellite photos (see www.viforest.org and www.wcwcvictoria.org ). Currently, only 6 to 8% of the original, productive old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland are protected in parks.
2. Ensure the sustainable logging of second-growth forests, which now constitute the majority of forest lands on the southern coast. A transition away from old-growth and into second-growth forestry is inevitable and already underway as the old-growth forests run out - the Wilderness Committee is simply calling for an end to old-growth logging BEFORE the last of the unprotected ancient forests are logged on Vancouver Island and the Lower Mainland.
3. Ban raw log exports, of which over four million cubic meters are exported annually from BC, two-thirds of which come from private forest lands. The BC government should also assist in the development of second-growth mills and manufacturing facilities to handle smaller diameter logs by providing tax breaks for investments in sustainable second-growth processing facilities and by directly investing funds taken from taxing timber companies.
"Its a given now to the vast majority of people in BC that we need to save what remains of our scarce old-growth forests on Vancouver Island and in the Lower Mainland and to log the second-growth forests instead in a sustainable fashion," states Wu. "We need to do this for the climate, for endangered species, for forestry jobs, for the coastal tourism industry, for our salmon streams, and for our quality of lives. Lets hope the Campbell government sees the light soon, during this coming electoral period."
For more info, maps, and stats visit: www.wcwcvictoria.org and www.viforest.org
Contact: Ken Wu, Campaign Director, WCWC Victoria office
250-388-9292
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