$150 Million for Reforestation
Prince George, B.C.- Premier Christy Clark made a stop in Prince George this afternoon to announce the Province is pumping $150 million dollars into a program to replant B.C.’s forests.
The money is a one time cash injection and is expected to result in the planting of tens of millions of seedlings as well as create 3,000 jobs.
The money will be transferred to the Forest Enhancement Society of British Columbia which will distribute the funds to projects that will be targeted towards wildfire reduction and enhancing forests that have been damaged by pests like the mountain pine beetle and treating forests for the management of greenhouse gases.
Premier Clark says the Province will be investing over $800 million dollars over the next decade in B.C. Forests “I think of that as $800 million dollars we are investing in climate change but also, just as importantly, $800 million dollars that we are investing in working people in British Columbia.”
She says over that ten year period, the dollars will create 20 thousand jobs, mostly in northern and rural B.C. “It will also represent a reduction of 11.7 mega tonnes of greenhouse gases. Just to put that in context, 11.7 mega tonnes of greenhouse gasses is more than the total of all the cars, all the trucks, all the planes and all the motorcycles in this country.”
“This new funding will be used to fund high stewardship projects around the province” says Jim Snetsinger, former Chief Forester of B.C. and now head of the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C.
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Comments
Why are taxpayers paying for campaign speeches?
The real question is, why are taxpayers paying for reforestation?
Answer? Mountain Pine Beetle? Act of God …. or is it? Poor forest management practices? …. maybe….. climate change? … maybe.
“Forest Enhancement Society of British Columbia” … is only 2 years old, entrusted with a major responsibility. There is a story there.
Sorry, only one year old, but created by government with about $85 million in start up funds.
Perhaps because there’s nobody else to pay for it? Ever think of that? Probably not. You probably think that any profits forest companies make are all taken out as cash and paid to their greedy shareholders as dividends. Well, they’re not. The first dibs on any profits they make are taken by the banks which finance them as ongoing repayments of the principal sums borrowed. Maintaining their credit with the banks is probably the most critical aspect of remaining in business nowadays.
Then a further goodly chunk of those profits, when there are any, amounts at least equal to the total of their annual depreciation, goes towards additions to fixed assets. If it’s less, they’re on their way to becoming a hollowed out shell of a corporate entity.
If they’re required to replant, they do.
But they don’t ‘own’ the lands they’re replanting; nor do they know they’ll be the ones to re-harvest those lands when the plantings mature. And if they’re competing ‘globally’ with other jurisdictions where publicly owned forest lands are re-planted, as they are in the USA, by that nation’s US Forest Service? Well, they’re at a bit of a disadvantage, then, aren’t they?
91 % of industry timber in the US comes from private land, so why even compare?
As far as I am concerned, we should use a combination of provincial revenues from stumpage fees, and Lumber Company profits, to invest in sustainable forest renewal.
You’ll never have “sustainable forest renewal” so long as you have governments which don’t know the difference between ‘inflation’ and ‘prosperity’. Not funded from Lumber Company profits, which are continually DECLINING as a percentage of Sales. Each year, just to maintain the same amount of dollar profit, those Companies will have to cut MORE timber to continue to meet their increased costs. That’s what buggered up the whole concept of Tree Farm Licences, which were once widely thought to be the path to a permanently sustainable future for large and small forest companies alike.
gopg Taxpayers paid for all reforesting until the Socreds changed the system in 1986, after that time the province has paid for reforesting NSR areas only. These funds announced cover areas that the ministry is responsible for maintaining SR
Haha, I was going to say “Bring on the haters”, but alas, I was too late…
I am not sure why this is a big news announcement, aren’t they supposed to be doing that anyways? I was under the impression this govt. had abandoned any forestry sustainability jobs tree planting various mills, ect tree planting has been a long tradition in this province, cabinet ministers galore up here and that’s it ??? tree planting?? lol
stop shipping out raw logs
Well little Bird having an option does not make a hater but more relists comments. This is a very bad joke when you consider how many workers have lost their jobs over 3500 just in this region and the forest ministry in disarray. In the event people haven’t noticed tree planters most students from across Canada are the recipients of those temp jobs which average 15/17 an hour for about 3/4 months. The forest act is needs change after the Liberals gutted it in 2001. This announcement will do zip to address the real issues that face workers, forest communities and families and that’s a fact.
Your numbers are off a bit. Planters can average 200.00 but most won’t plant unless they get 3-400.00 per day. Rookies have to make 100-150.00 a day to pay for things like camp and still make a minimum take home wage. The work is 6 on 1 off or 5 on 1 off with one period of 2 days off per month. This was negotiated by the Labour Board years ago. They get 7.6 percent on top for holiday pay in lieu of stat holiday. They work 60-70 days total spring plant. The summer plant can range from 2-3 shifts depending on the company. Some stay to do brushing and spraying until fall. The lower mainland has a longer season but they are unionized and completely different pay scale. Some BC kids and career planters work the mainland/island and won’t plant interior. Forest Act plays no bearing on planting just on multiple request keys per stratum, FS704 is still the standard created in the 80s.
Students are preferred by most companies as they are in need of spring/summer quick cash infusion to pay for the next years schooling. BC prices for planting took a tumble in the late 90s as Canfor took possession of its prices telling the companies who work for them what they are going to get paid – share the pain and loss is what they told everyone in a huge meeting. The infamous matrix and proposals of the 2000s signaled a hard time for planting as most students here decided against planting when prices were flat, thus the need to bring a lot of people over from eastern Canada which remains to today
Knowing a little about the industry from rumours is dangerous Millman
If any of you know people that do this for a living ask them how much has been cut back in the last ten years….to any that use the back country you will notice how long it takes to replant and why because the liberal government relaxed the rules on replanting with these fly by night logging companies….to all you Christie lovers prove me wrong I know you will look it up on your computer but get out of your chair and actually drive out into the woods and take a look then come back and tell me I am wrong
A cruise up the KK would be a start.
Come now, fly by night logging contractors? Replanting is done by tenure holders (TFL, woodlot, FN, etc) and the ministry not by some “fly by nighter”. There are rules to follow when it comes to planting seedlings. Not cutting as much means not planting as much
Which is why the Forest Practices Board visited a section planted by Canfor near Chetwynd and found a mining company had opened up a gravel pit on that section. The seedlings were gone of course!
I believe it when the BC Forest Practices Board says our forest resource remains unknown and unmanaged!!!
This funding announcement is nothing more than BC Liberal election campaigning, in my opinion.
Your comment shows you are just a hack. The land was reforested and had nothing to do with Canfor not planting its cutblock
And as per your comment above, stumpage fees pay for planting and maintaining the stand. TFL, TSA, woodlot, etc owners deduct planting from stumpage payable and assume control of the cutblock. Once the block reaches (and is proven to have reached) free to grow the province assumes the liability from the tenure holder. This is signed off by an RPF
Canfor and other licensees do not visit every cutblock every year, they have no reason to. Once harvested the block is piled and burned of debris (if they left too much merchantable timber on the site per hectare by the waste survey they are fined), then one to two years later it is planted, a few years later it is surveyed and fill planted if needed, 6 years after initial planting it is surveyed for free to grow. After planting it could be up to 6 years before that block is walked on again depending on its location. Planting rules have not changed much over the years even from NDP to Liberal rule
I spend a lot of time out in the woods in all seasons and I have to say that most new logging that I see going on around here is replanted within 2 years. They have been hitting the Olsen/MacGregor region hard the last 3/4 years and a lot of it has been replanted already. I agree though that I don’t see how the 3000 jobs are going to help the employment locally since a good part of the planters are from out of province and work on the same crews year after year, so there isn’t a huge turnover even.
The Liberals have gutted our forest industry:
In just five years, from 2009 to 2013, annual raw log exports jumped from under 2.5 million to well over 6.5 million cubic metres..
To put that in perspective: a standard logging truck can hold around 40 cubic metres of timber…Why the huge increase in raw log exports? Has the value of raw logs in foreign markets skyrocketed? The data from BC Stats shows the exact opposite: raw log prices have fallen by almost 50 per cent in the last 15 years.
Almost 97 per cent of all Canadian raw log exports come from B.C. — the amount shipped by any other province is negligible. Because we export so many more raw logs than other provinces, we’re getting a fraction of the return and a fraction of the jobs that they do.
by Torrance Coste, February 4, 2015 | TheTyee.ca
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It was a victory for the forestry sector as a whole and for all British Columbians. On August 28, quietly and without fanfare, Forest Minister Steve Thomson released Jim Snetsinger’s report on area-based tenures. Although thanking Mr. Snetsinger for “a comprehensive and professional report”, Thomson noted that the Ministry “will not be proceeding with legislative changes that would enable forest licence conversions in fall 2014 or spring 2015.”
According to the Minister, the decision not to go ahead with the controversial change to forest tenure at this time (which had as its core the creation of more Tree Farm Licences controlled by a few big companies) was because of the recent Supreme Court Tsilhqot’in decision and “requests from forest companies and communities to focus on key immediate priorities.”
Indeed, many came forward in the forest sector and forestry-based communities across the province to express their opposition to the proposed changes, whether at public meetings such as those organized locally by the Stand Up for the North Committee, or in written and oral submissions to the Snetsinger review panel.
This is the second time in two years that the government has put forward the TFL conversion idea. And it is the second time it has been forced to withdraw it because of strong public opposition to what many feel was a further step towards privatization of our forests.
It raises the questions – How did the government get into this muddle? What is the fatal flaw in its forest policy? In a nutshell, it is the fact that the government appears to base its forest policy on catering to the interests of a few, increasingly globalized, big companies at the expense of all the other sectors of the forest industry, as well as British Columbians as a whole…
“The Fatal Flaw in the BC Government’s Tree Farm Licence Proposal” By Peter Ewart Thursday, September 11, 2014 | 250 News.com
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The Working Forest is being sold to “working families” across the province as providing greater job stability in the forest industry by ensuring access to timber supply. But it’s a hollow claim. Under the BC Liberals’ Forest Revitalization Act, local milling requirements were eliminated on May 30. Critics of the policy see this as nothing more than a prelude to continued easing of restrictions on raw log exports. This is devastating news for communities already reeling from the effects of the US softwood lumber dispute.
“BC Liberals’ Forest Revitalization Act Eliminates Local Milling Requirments”, by Art Joyce, August 28, 2012 |watershedsentinel.ca
“In just five years, from 2009 to 2013, annual raw log exports jumped from under 2.5 million to well over 6.5 million cubic metres..
To put that in perspective: a standard logging truck can hold around 40 cubic metres of timber…Why the huge increase in raw log exports? Has the value of raw logs in foreign markets skyrocketed? The data from BC Stats shows the exact opposite: raw log prices have fallen by almost 50 per cent in the last 15 years.”
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Read the above, Annie. It should be self-explanatory. Even to a NDPer. Let me translate it for you, if it isn’t. If log prices in the export markets have fallen 50 % in the last 15 years, then the only way profit margins can be maintained is to try to export MORE logs. “Unit cost is a function of volume”. Of course, if EVERY country that exports raw logs, (and there seem to be a lot of them), all dump MORE logs on the market to try to recover their costs and maintain their level of profit, then the prices of those logs are going to fall further. So we have a situation where we export around 4 million cubic meters more logs over a 4 year period, but we don’t make a proportional increase in profit, even though we could say the price has only fallen approximately 12.5% over that same period. Clearly a losing proposition, long term. But stop raw log export and the jobs associated with it will disappear. And they’re not likely to re-appear as mill jobs, since there’s no way we can FORCE our former log customers to take lumber instead. Now they might do that, if it was cheap enough. But that doesn’t bode well for high paying forest industry jobs.
Almost all raw logs are exported from the coastal operations, only 1% of logs from the interior are exported as raw log, the rest go to mills
Half the volume of raw logs are exported under Federal jurisdiction – ie FN tenure holders and have nothing to do with the BC Liberals
More desperate vote buying. Next.
I’m sure glad they are funding tree planting instead of subsidizing tuitions… (sarcasm).
We have a trades and skilled worker shortage in this province and across Canada that is only getting worse.
85 million??? Seriously. By the way I read the tuition hike article just before this article.
Also my opinion will no longer matter as I am not going to vote ever again.
Christy please go back to Victoria and take your shovel with you. Your pre-election promises and alternative facts mean nothing. 800 million dollars and 20 thousand jobs- what a bad joke. This sounds like LNG all over again. Did you pull these numbers out of a hat?
Didn’t you know they come out of your rear? Maybe post some “factual” info on this site
When you have a government that gives up oversight and management of our forest harvesting and renewal over to the Big Timber Companies, then yes oldman1 is right; this government pulled those numbers out of their a$$-hat!
Gotta laugh, hey when the NDP doubled stumpage to create FRBC did they also budget in raiding it like they did to try and lower their deficit, you seem to be in the NDP know…
Oversight is still with the ministry, where do you get your info? Oh right. Maybe look into Forest Practices Code and see what red tape brings you – complete shutdown of the industry. The NDP started the Canfor buyouts of bankrupt mills and their cuts and grew the company for them creating the monopoly we have today
slinky-here is something factual for you. We were promised 100,000 new jobs in the LNG industry before the last election and it did not happen so I don’t know where your head has been. Maybe in the sand.
Trudeau said we would have electoral reform last election, your point? What alternate facts are there to 150 million for planting NSR?
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