Routley: government can’t see the forest for the lack of trees

The Auditor General’s report on government timber management indicates the province’s existing management practices are insufficient to offset the trend toward lower timber supply.

Andrew Leong/file

Share this story

Tweet

• Routley gathers ammunition in bid to challenge seniors driving tests
• Routley calls Clark’s decision to wait until 2013 for an election just another policy ‘surprise’
• Dix hands the Routleys their duties
• Routley ready for a snap election call
• Local MLA’s living expenses among Victoria’s highest
• Cowichan leads charge to apply Crown forest regulations to private forest land

If you go down to the woods today, says Cowichan Valley's MLA, you're in for a big surprise.

"In some areas, you can't see the forest for the lack of trees — that's the problem," Bill Routley lamented.

Routley, who also serves as the B.C. NDP's deputy critic for forests, lands and natural resource operations, is demanding answers after reading the Auditor General John Doyle's report, An Audit of the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations' Management of Timber.

The report points out that although nearly two-thirds of B.C.'s 95-million hectares is forested, trends indicate the future availability of timber will be smaller and less diverse.

"Industry is legally obligated to reforest the areas it harvest, and it does so," Doyle said. "But government, which is responsible for more than 90 per cent of British Columbia's forests, and whose reforestation decisions have a significant impact on our future forests, is not clear about its own commitments."

Doyle found that the ministry does not appropriately monitor and report its timber results against its timber objectives, and pointed out that existing management practices are insufficient to offset the trend toward lower timber supply and diversity.

"...government needs to establish a provincial plan that states its long-term timber objectives and focuses its resources in order to foster economic stability and quality of life for British Columbians now and in the future."

That's Routley's wish, too.

"It's going to be tough to find a way to dig out of this hole," he said. "They've created such a mess, leaving catastrophic events for future British Columbians to pay for."

One of Routley's chief concerns, he said, is the government making decisions based on old data.

"The ministry is saying it's somewhere around 700,000 hectares that needs reforestation, and the auditor-general says it's a minimum of 1.1 million," Routley said.

Others crank that number up to between 2.3 and 9 million hectates.

"So you can see there's a huge disparity between the facts, and if you're making a decision today based on assumptions that there are trees where they've burned or killed by beetle, it really is a disaster."

Compounding the problem, Routley added, is the continued export of raw logs out of B.C.

"The most recent numbers we got a week ago say we're exporting 5.5 million cubic metres," Routley said. "If you line up all the logging trucks from Victoria, the line would end up in Thunder Bay, Ontario.

"And we're not only losing value-added opportunities and jobs for British Columbians by supplying raw materials that further dampen our sales of lumber, because they're not taking it and burning it: they're making products that further compete with us by eliminating manufacturing jobs.

"It's simply not good enough. Governments need to be responsible for the forests of British Columbia, now, and for the future."

NDP MLAs hit the road to fight raw log exports

A New Democrat forestry committee is touring the province to tackle raw log exports.

The three-MLA committee, which includes Cowichan Valley MLA Bill Routley, started touring Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast last week, meeting with industry, labour, local government and other industry stakeholders.

The committee with also visit the Lower Mainland, southern and central interior, the Kootenays and northern B.C. in the coming four months, to develop strategies to curtail raw log exports.

View the full story here.