Time of historic transition for the Coastal forest industry

The Truck loggers Association has weighed into the debate over the sustainability of the forest industry along the B. C. coast, providing a working paper designed to address issues in the industry with the release of the Forestry Revitalization Plan of 2003.

Their paper is designed as an answer to their concerns of some of the government plans as outlined in that plan of 2003.

The Daily News broke down the issues, with a front page story in Monday’s paper.


‘FOREST INDUSTRY ON COAST AT FORK IN THE ROAD’
By Leanne Ritchie
The Daily News
Page one
Monday, November 27, 2006

The Coastal B.C. forest sector must follow a clear new strategic vision if the industry is to move forward with any success, says a new report by the Truck Loggers Association (TLA).
“We wanted to step back and take a fresh look at how we can assist government in getting where the province needs to go,” said Jim Girvan, TLA executive director.

“We’re in the middle of a historic transition on the coast and if we want to ensure government maintains the ability to provide social programs like health care that benefit all British Columbians then we want to ensure change on the coast goes in the right direction — for everybody.”

The ‘working paper’, entitled Markets and Market Forces: The Key to Prosperity for the Coastal Forest Industry, outlines a new direction for the Coastal industry in light of the result of the 2003 Forestry Revitalization Plan.

The report argues that the “marketplace reaction to the policy changes that were introduced ... effectively derailed the achievements of some of the plan’s key objectives.”

Among the TLA’s concerns are that the provincial plan led to a greater monopoly in the coastal forest sector, that there has been a systematic reduction of the coastal log market which has tightened supply; that log shortages are widespread across the coast; that log exports continue to leave the province as many independent mills struggle due to a lack of raw materials; and that the 20 per cent tenure take-back caused many highly trained workers to leave the industry.

In order to counter this, the TLA has developed a vision they believe will ensure a future for the industry, beginning with competitive log markets.

“With almost 65 per cent of the current coastal (annual allowable cut) in the hands of four players, and 42 per cent controlled by a single company, it’s imperative that all other market-based forest volume is harvested and comes to market,” reads the report.

The report recommends the government allow 120 percent of the current B.C. Timber Sales (BCTS) allocated volumes currently implemented during the next two years, improvement of the bureaucratic cutting permit approval, changes to current log export policy to encourage open market competitiveness and fair market pricing, a new licencing arrangement facilitating concurrent salvage of waste pulp log volumes be investigated, that the current “take or pay” policy be reconsidered, and that the Crown moves to variable pricing on all BCTS auctions immediately.

Secondly, the vision outlines a strategy that would improve the labour market for the forestry sector by having the government provide more certainty by ensuring steady logging, and by the province doing more to promote forestry jobs at the school level.

Thirdly, the paper advocates for a system that protects the working forest land base, meaning there must be a commitment to providing a steady supply of competitively priced forest to be logged.

The TLA calls on the province to ensure Ecosystem Based Management practices are applied equitably and the costs covered and that the North and Central Coast Land Resource Management Plans (LRMP) be modified to include economic criteria.

Lastly, the paper calls for an equitable taxation plan that includes the extension of the PST exemption for logging equipment to cover machines, equipment and supplies used for road building in support of forest harvesting. The paper also calls for the government to work with municipalities to bring municipal taxation of the forest industry in line with other jurisdictions, and that “traditional territory payments” (TTPs) made by companies to First Nations be deducted from stumpage fees.

The Daily News is available on line at this link.