I didn’t vote for the guy, but at least he seems to have a promising start. Here’s to being hopeful we have an MP that will buckle down and work hard for our region. God knows we haven’t had that for 20+ years.

The Federal Liberals are an Ontario / Quebec party, they don’t give a rat’s ass about the West. They never have and they never will.

“The Federal Liberals are an Ontario / Quebec party, they don’t give a rat’s ass about the West. They never have and they never will. ”

Trudeau has ties and connections to BC though. His party has seen a major increase in support in BC, there is reason for them to put in effort into BC. BC is a tough province to win over – every region is so different and its hard to please the whole province. We’re not Alberta/Saskatchewan, or the Atlantic provinces which sway heavy in one direction.

Listen to him on TV.. lots of bragging about PG and his skills but no real content..yes we have this great runaway at the airport -still waiting for the planes, Canada winter games where was his government including Steve H., Highway of Tears – did his government want an inquiry? Alot of hot air!

Oldman the liberal whiners are always complaining we don’t hear from our representatives and now that we do they are still whining, WUWT.

He says our region has been the economic engine of BC. BS Todd . Do a little reading before you speak next time . The main driver of the bc economy is the construction , real estate , finacial and service sectors to the tune of 72% . the mining and forestry make up the rest . What’s with the cons any way . It’s so easy to look things up and compare industrial out put . Took me about three minutes of reading to find out how full of it you are once again .

His maiden speech in the house . And it’s full of bs . Tracy must be laughing her head off .

Throne Speeches are traditionally just broad outlines of the main objectives and goals of a government! If all the smallest details had been mentioned the Throne Speech would have taken several hours and the opposition would have complained about that too! One can also make the point that a prudent previous government should have engaged the US government even before the expiry date for preliminary talks.

Ataloss,.

Only you would think that you could have construction, real estate, financial and service sectors without the mining and forest industries that provide the jobs to pay for them. Who would the service industries service without the pulp mills, sawmills, mines, railways and associated industries?? Why would there be a need for a construction industry if you didn’t have these other industries.

Give your head a shake. You make about as much sense as Trudeau and his sunny days, sunny ways. What a twit.

TD:”He said it means “more instability in an already uncertain industry.”

Nice going! Nothing more damaging than telling US negotiators that Canada’s industry is “uncertain”! How about desperate for any kind of a deal, no matter how bad for us?

You know, chances are, the house is empty, there’s a guy sitting behind him to make it look good, and his question is recorded in the official record. It’s not like Trudeau is on the other side of the aisle quaking in his boots. It’ll go into Hansard and be ignored.

“He says our region has been the economic engine of BC. BS Todd . Do a little reading before you speak next time . The main driver of the bc economy is the construction , real estate , finacial and service sectors to the tune of 72% . the mining and forestry make up the rest . What’s with the cons any way . It’s so easy to look things up and compare industrial out put . Took me about three minutes of reading to find out how full of it you are once again . ”

How much of the construction, real estate, financial and services sectors are reliant on the industrial output?

We need a starting point to generate the income, professional services and real estate would crumble without our exports.

ataloss, you state “our region”?

You don’t even live in our region, do you??

Why so much concern for what happens in OUR region? Perhaps you should be focusing your attention on what happens in YOUR region?

Credbc.ca ….. Fuelling B.C’s economy : where does our wealth come from ? Btw 98% of our economy is driven by small business , more than any other province . Pal if you would like to clue in . Just read a liltle more than you write . The forest industry is ate the very bottom of our industrial out put .

People complained that Dick Harris didn’t do enough to represent the people of his riding.

Todd Doherty makes an attempt to call the Government to action for the benefit of the people in his riding!

Result? Cue the whining!

Seems there’s just no winning with you people! But I can just imagine the praise that Ataloss would be bestowing upon Tracy if she had made the comments in the House.

Wait a minute, she can’t make the comment in the House, because she failed to get elected to the House!

How much of the construction, real estate, financial and services sectors are reliant on the industrial output? According to credbc.ca not very much . Just paste this in your search engine ….Credbc.ca ….. Fuelling B.C’s economy : where does our wealth come from ?

The forest industry takes a nose dive and stocks plummet? The Canadain Dollar takes a nose dive????

The agriculture industry does the same? The mining industry does the same?

Of course not!!!

Oil prices plummet…… the Canadian dollar plummets with it!!!

Oil is what has been driving the dollar up from its previous long term lows in the $0.70 to $0.80 range.

We have a petro dollar. We no longer have another resource dollar.

What keeps the economy going in BC is all the industry centred around the lower mainland, the rest is mainly chump change. If this region is going to grow, we will have to understand what drives the economy in BC. The old way of thinking has to go out the door. The study that was done by UNBC, or whoever, about a decade or so ago was totally flawed, partially by local bias.

I do not know enough about lumber agreements, but normally one is not exactly left with a void when that happens. I do not read complaints from Canfor and others so far. Can we get an interview with Canfor to see what their concern might be? Forget the politicians.

Our new MP was able to get a speech on the second day of the new Parliament. He used his time to talk about his riding and the issues he heard during the campaign. How can anyone be opposed to a member of parliament speaking in the house of commons and sticking up for his constituents? Whether you voted for him or not, he is doing his job. You negative redasses need to push away from the keyboard and do something more productive with your bitter, tiny lives.

Bravo gopg , Bravisimo ! Hope you search the truth in the article I’ve pointed out . The folks that put it together are rabid business people and it is unbiased . The graphs tell the story . You’ve got to combine Agra with forestry to come close to the mining out put . Which is also at the bottom . That’s why forestry is given lip service from christy and a let it burn aditude during the fire season unless it threatens her riding .

Well Hart Guy. We still have not had the likes of a Donald Trump in our region. As messed up as our political system is, it does not hold a candle to the USA.

My post was intended to point people to look elsewhere for why the housing prices in the lower mainland are as high as they are. Virtually the highest in the country. Why? Try Chinese immigrants. Try one of the most, if not THE most livable city in Canada that people will endure economic hardships in order to live and work there. Sort of something like Whistler; the super rich living in fantastic residences and hotels, and the young, foreign (Australia, etc.)service sector living cheek by jowl to enjoy the skiing in their free time.

My post was not intended to slight Todd. It is his first go and he is following many others from other parts of the country extolling similar virtues of their region, the share of wealth they bring to the country, and the changes which need to be made by the Feds in order to continue to reap those benefits.

It is a template, and novice parliamentarians will typically seek out templates. Give him a year or so to fell the seat and gain some experience. In the meantime, just watch and listen.

Ataloss

Lets looks at BC Exports to all Countries in Billions of dollars.

Wood Products 8,132
Pulp and Paper 4,265
Agri & Food 2,253
Fish 964
Metallic Minerals 4,566
Fab Metal Prods 1,059
Energy Prods 7,803 (Natural Gas, Coal, Electricity, other)
Machinery & Equip 4,091
Other 2,632

Total 35,765.

So there you have it some 35.75 billion dollars in exports. This of course does not include domestic consumption.

It doesn’t take a genius to figure out the number of service industries, construction industries, etc; that are dependent on these exporting companies for their well being.

Without the forest and mining industry Prince George and the North Central Interior would be nothing but ghost towns.

Geez pal . Do you even know the business demography of PG ? It’s health care , education and small business .

There may be a lot of people making and spending money in the Greater Vancouver area, however at the end of the day who gives a s..t. Most of the jobs in Vancouver are dependent on import/export of goods from all over the world which are then distributed to other parts of the Country.

The Chinese invest in Vancouver because it is a safe haven for their money, this of course drives up the price of houses, however a lot of those buying houses do not live Vancouver. They live where the real action is ie; Bejing, Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, etc; etc; etc;

Vancouver may be a nice place to live on spend your vacation, however a large segment of people who live there are middle/lower class, and most are dependent on the industries in BC for their jobs.

Its these industries that make it possible for guys like Ataloss to make a dollar.

The BC Small Business Profile for 2015 was published in October and includes many useful statistics. A quick Google search should land you on the report. Some notable statistics include:
– 33% of BC’s GDP is generated by small business
– Small business makes of 54% of BC’s private sector employment
– The fastest growing sectors in small business are real estate, ambulatory health care, technical and scientific services, food and drink, and speciality trade contractors
– Employment in the forestry, logging and support as well and transportation and warehousing small business sectors continues to be strong with 18% growth since 2009
– Self-employment has dropped 10.5% across the province since 2009
– BC small business growth is -3.1% since 2009

Jillian.. and here I thought all of our business was in selling bikes and keeping bike lanes open damn the vehicle drivers.. who would have thought otherwise ;)

I am wondering what the Cons had going on before the softwood lumber agreement ended.. they had to know it was coming to an end.. I would hope they had been working on it.. please dont tell me they screwed that up to?

Logging trucks are mainly owned by a small business owner, the driver.

This is just more of Todd’s attempt to validated his existence, seeing he was so noticeably active before the election…

Of course the cons were working on the softwood agreement, problem is the Americans don’t want to discuss the issue, and if our Government doesn’t get something going we are going to end up without an agreement.

That’s why its important for **Sunny Days and Sunny Ways** to stop taking selfies, and get to work. As mentioned somewhere above these people from Ontario/Quebec don’t know much about the Western part of the Country, or the problems that they face.

Ataloss. Healthcare, education, and small business, are in Prince George because of the forest and mining industry. Take away these industries, and a lot of the others will follow.

Healthcare may provide jobs, but the money for their paychecks comes from taxpayers who work for the various industries. The same applies to education. All paid for by tax dollars from people working for industry or small business. A lot of small business’s are dependent on the forest industry or mining industry for their well being.

So if we look at industry in the Prince George area, we see the following.

1. Three pulp mills. (Northwood Pulp, Intercon, PG Pulp and Paper)
2. Peroxy (Used to be FMC Corporation
3. Chemtrade
4. Husky Oil Refinery
5. Carrier Lumber, PG Sawmills, Lakeland Mills, Isle Pierre,
6. Then we have all the associated business’s such as Railways, Trucking Companies, Truck dealerships, etc; than rely on the forest and mining industry to survive.

On and on it goes.

Foresty, mining, and the associated industries that support them are the backbone of the BC Northern Interior.

33% of BC’s GDP may be generated by small business, however the question is. What is the percentage of small business that rely on the forest and mining industry to survive.

If you want to look at Endako with the closure of Endako Mines, or Tumbler Ridge with the closure of the coal mines, or MacKenzie with the closure of some lumber mills and the paper mill, or Chetwyn with the closure (short term) of the pulp mill you will begin to see that a lot of small business needs industry to survive.

All I can say about his, he knows how to read script well.

So you guys are saying that the resource industry in Northern BC (which incidentally can’t even create positive growth rates in the areas it is located), is magically driving population and economic growth for the rest of the Province?

Okay, that makes sense. Gotcha.

ataloss, do you look at your thumbdown scores? Your are the biggest tool since people number1 spammed this sight. Go away.

From the Government of Canada – Global Affairs Canada

09-10-2015 – Expiry of the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement and associated export measures

Please note that the Softwood Lumber Agreement is scheduled to expire on October 12th, 2015. As such, for the month of October export measures will apply only to exports with shipment dates of October 1st to 12th at 11:59 PM.

Any exports of softwood lumber products first manufactured in Canada and destined for the United States with shipment dates on or after October 13th, 2015 WILL NO LONGER BE SUBJECT TO EXPORT MEASURES.

—————————–

Along with that a section of the SLA stipulates that after it expires on October 12, no lumber trade cases can be filed for at least one year.

Many Canadians have said they would be amenable to renewing the SLA in its current form.

On the other hand, the U.S. Lumber Coalition, which represents much of the U.S. industry, is against rubber-stamping the SLA.

So, we have at least a year of no imposed tariffs as I can see. If somebody knows more about the immediate negative consequences of this, please let us know.

Keep in mind that whenever the monthly tariffs had gone up to levels such as 15%, the provinces involved stopped shipping. That happened under the agreement.

gopg2015:-“So, we have at least a year of no imposed tariffs as I can see. If somebody knows more about the immediate negative consequences of this, please let us know. ”
=========================================================================
The ‘immediate negative consequences’ is in regard to the fact that many of the major players in the BC forest industry, and some smaller ones, too, both in the Interior and on the Coast, also now have substantial investments in mills in the USA. And with continuing ‘uncertainty’ about what they may be facing when this tariff free year of grace is up this is likely to cause them to invest in making their US mills more productive while capital spending on their BC plants will be on hold. This has already happened with Conifex, and others have, or will, follow suit.

Another factor is that 2016 is a US Presidential election year, and the closer we get to that the less likelihood that we’ll be able to re-negotiate a SLA that’s going to be as favourable as the one that’s now expired. So there is some sense of urgency to try to get an agreement as soon as possible. The recent fall in the value of the loonie won’t help in this regard at all. If it stays down, or goes still lower. And when Trudeau’s election promises generate larger than expected deficits, and the Bank of Canada tries to stimulate spending by having a negative interest rate (which won’t work either)? There’s going to be a new saying out there soon ~ “Liberal times are hard times.”

Socredible … you are keeping this far too simple by dealing with one issue and one issue only …. the decades long dispute with the USA with respect to both lumber and the autopact in what is supposedly a NAFTA free trade environment. You know as well as I do that the USA is the elephant and we are the mouse anytime those discussions happen.

So, in the interest of making this a bit more realistic, bring in the fact that much of the Interior, especially the northern half, is facing the downturn of so called short term inventory loss of some 40% over as many as the next 40 years while, at the same time, having developed more interest in our lumber by China.

And then we have the Russian, who can outdo us all when it comes to timber supply.

We have some tough market decisions ahead of us, especially when one includes the mass manufacturing efficiencies we have built into our systems which may have been advantageous over the last few decades from the point of view of capacity building, but not from the point of view of adjusting to specialty markets. Others are far superior at that than we are.

We have been and are continuing to be driven by a single approach. We have cut our manufacturing workforce at the cost of increasing the costs of transportation of raw goods from the woodlands to the plants. We have become super-efficient and effective in developing a single product – dimension lumber.

In the meantime, no one is mentioning the mills that have shut down just within the greater PG area, including a plywood plant that never got re-built. Canfor was happy that their MDF plant was delayed because they said they would have lost their shirt had they built it.

It is time we got smart again thought about readjusting our approach to the forest products we sell as well as what we grow and how we grow it for the future inventory and re-looked at where the industry is going for the next 30 to 40 years.

For the Province of BC, looking at the BC GDP by Industry table in 2007 chained dollars for the period from 1997 to 2014 I find the following when comparing forestry related goods producing output of forestry and logging, paper manufacturing and wood product manufacturing.

For 2014 the total of the above 3 categories was $6,266million.

The total of all goods-producing industries was $51,087million

The total of service producing industries was $152,140million

The total of all industries was $203,067million. (those are the figures shown. I do not know why the second and third figures do not add up to this total)

So, from that we get the following:
The forest industry produces 12.27% of the good-producing sector and 3.09% of all sectors.

When comparing the change over time from 1997 to 2014, the forest sector has reduced its contribution to the goods-producing sector by 24.6%. Its contribution to the all industry sectors was reduced by 28.9%

The highest actual production over the period was in 2005 and the lowest was in 2009. The drop over the 4 year interval was 36.8%. The 2014 production is still 14.5% below the 2005 production level. I doubt it will recover for several decades unless they shift part of their production from lumber to further added value products.

If Russia starts changing its primary forest product export policy, it will become even worse for BC and Canada.

The government has sat on the issue of requiring licensees to provide feedstock for value added products for decades. The entire issue of how well the forest industry does and how well it could do is not all that simple. So far everyone has taken a laissez faire approach. If we keep doing that, it will simply get worse.

So which goods producing industries stand out as the highest growths in contribution to the BC GDP?

Oil and gas extraction, up by 130.2% when compared to forestry’s total of 7.7% increase.

Mining and quarrying is not doing that well, but still better than forestry. It is up by 19.7%

The support industries for the two combined have gone up 35.4%

Total construction has gone up by 70.7% with the residential component being the leader at 88.3%.

The other one which has grown considerably is food manufacturing with an increase of 62%.

Finally, the goods producing industry is up by 42.8% with the service producing industry up by 55.5%

The highest increase is in Professional, scientific and technical services at 87.4%. Trucking is up by 73.3%. Telecommunications is up by 66.7%.

Interestingly accommodation and food services is one of the lowest at 24% and, surprise to many I assume, public administration is up by 28.4%.

Lastly, I will leave you with an interesting read about where BC’s wealth comes from.

credbc.ca/role-energy-sector-bcs-economy

gopg2015, you make the all too common mistake of believing the type of timber that now goes into dimension lumber could be diverted into making ‘specialty products’. Much of it could not be. Most of it, in fact. Both because of the species and quality of the wood itself and also the higher costs involved in what would then have to be specialty logging. But aside from that, where it is possible to make specialty products, where a market actually exists for them that can return the costs involved, specialty products are already being made. Way, way more than you’re obviously aware of. And they will continue to be made, just so long as those two conditions attend. But lets not forget they ARE JUST THAT ~ SPECIALTY products. When you move to make them into COMMODITY products through more widespread manufacture, the market price for them will be negatively affected, and very quickly it will no longer pay to make them at all. You say I’m only dealing with ‘one issue’ in my posts above. And that’s quite true, I am. But it is one of the most important issues in regards to getting some certainty on what’s ahead for our industry in its most important market for what we are able to produce with the resource we have.

When there was an artificially created timber shortage in the US Pacific Northwest because of the withdrawal of National Forest timber sales to supposedly preserve northern spotted owl habitat, the price of private timber still available to the industry there sky-rocketed. The lumber industry did NOT respond by switching from dimension lumber production towards making more ‘specialty products’ of the type usually thought of when that phrase is used. Things which are more labor intensive, like furniture, perhaps, ala Ikea. It went the other way. The mills that survived, and thrived, to the extent anyone there could thrive, were virtually all stud mills. Making that lowliest, most common dimension lumber product, the 8 to 10 foot 2×4 stud. Now ask yourself just WHY this was so.

Dear little Dow . I don’t care if some of you don’t like the truth . I’ll still point to the truth . And that’s obviously sinking in thanks to credbc.ca . hopefully Todd will start reading a little about what’s in his next speech before he makes it . It’s all too reminiscent of his ” I’ve read the whole text of Bill C51 ” let’s also hope this is not going to be a recurring pattern .

Hart guy if Tracy had made the same idiotic statement in the House of Commons I would have been as brutally honest about her speech . However as far as I know she is not prone to flights of fancy or hyperbole . That’s a con thing .

“you make the all too common mistake of believing the type of timber that now goes into dimension lumber could be diverted into making ‘specialty products’”

And you, socredible, make the common mistake of not knowing about the problems people like Brink are facing, and not walking through furniture stores, and seeing windows produced, mouldings, etc. produced.

Around here we consider birch to be garbage. In the rest of the worl they make flooring, cabinetry, etc. from it.

“its most important market for what we are able to produce with the resource we have.”

Yes, I can tell by some of the posts that we have little brain power here. 7.7% growth in forestry .. 80+% growth in applied science based professional.