Repair List Begins With Resource Sector – NCLC Head
Prince George, B.C. – The head of the North Central Labour Council says the forest sector and working forests are a mess because they’ve been neglected for 16 years and calls on an anticipated NDP government to refocus on the benefits of the forest resource for job stability, growth and opportunity.
NCLC President Don Iwaskow says “making changes to the Forestry Act would be a good start. It was dismantled by the Liberals in 2002 and has not resulted in any net benefit to workers or communities, especially the value-added sector.” Iwaskow also wants a halt to the export of raw logs stating “anytime we export raw unprocessed products it’s a loss to the people of the province and exports jobs out of the country.”
“We can do more with our wood waste and timber, its just more cost-effective to ship out the raw product, which is wrong-headed and should be unacceptable to any government. Government has the opportunity to stop the bleed and create the policies and supports needed to greatly curtail the export of raw logs.”
Still in the resource vein, Iwaskow suggests re-directing all the jobs from the Forest, Environment and Mining ministries back to regional offices; improve the process for mine approvals, inspectors and oversight; and encourage new, emerging industries to locate in the North/Central region.
He says the Liberals have done a poor job on job creation, at least from the Prince George area south. “We’ve seen some employment in the service sector, hotels, restaurants and construction, but they are not long-term, family-supporting jobs. When you look at the mill closures in this region, each one employing 200-plus workers earning $50-60,000 per year and the spin-off loss, there has been no substitute manufacturing growth.”
Iwaskow says as for the Peace Region “you’ve seen an upstart in mining and with the Site C hydro project but the numbers claimed by the Liberals are suspect as to the number of local and regional workers and contractors gaining benefit.”
He says Site C should have undergone a BC Utilities Commission review from the start. “The BCUC was created to be at arm’s length from government and had the ability to bring in a wide range of experts and information and determine the needs of the future regarding hydro demand. Hurry up and build was not necessary and more political than anything.”
Regarding the seemingly never-ending increase in myriad rates Iwaskow says “the new government must stop the practice of the Liberals using ICBC to balance the books and audit the agency. The issue of MSP is not simple and will require some work but its going to take an extensive review as some employers pay the cost for employees, others a percentage and some not at all. Hydro needs to go under the microscope and view their finances and priorities. All this will help lower costs for the people of BC, which should be the priority.”
The North Central Labour Council represents workers from the Prince George, Quesnel, South Cariboo and Peace River areas.
Comments
Union government again for the next four years.
Nice.
” Iwaskow also wants a halt to the export of raw logs stating “anytime we export raw unprocessed products it’s a loss to the people of the province and exports jobs out of the country.”
“We can do more with our wood waste and timber, its just more cost-effective to ship out the raw product….”
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Yes, Don, anytime we do that it does ‘export jobs out of the country’, there’s no denying that. But it also ‘imports’ money back into the country. More money, we’re desperately hoping, than it’s going to take to buy all any actual imports from any country we’re exporting our raw, unprocessed products, or anything further value-added, to.
That extra money, from having a so-called ‘favourable’ trade balance internationally, is used to ‘buy’ Canadian money. Which the Bank of Canada obligingly creates for ‘purchase’. And THAT newly created Canadian money is much MORE valuable than the other money that the Bank of Canada has a hand in creation, somewhat indirectly, ALL the new money that is created each time a bank in this country lends or spends. The only difference is, and this is what makes the foreigner’s money so sought after, there is NO DEBT attached to it that has to be repaid by us.
“All this will help lower costs for the people of BC, which should be the priority.”
SO, if NCLC President Don Iwaskow knows that, why do we need all these reviews? That would be a total waste of time.
When we have such a soothsayer in our midst we should be thankful and just make the changes and get on with it.
“anytime we export raw unprocessed products it’s a loss to the people of the province and exports jobs out of the country”
We export metallurgical coal to other countries who make steel. Why do we not make steel?
And if we would make steel, we would likely export some and even most of that. Why would we make steel and let other countries use it to make products?
One could do this with every single raw resource used as feedstock for the next level of secondary and tertiary creation of products.
The answer to almost of all of this is that we still are the country seen as “hewers of wood and drawers of water”. For the most part, that is the way we think of ourselves, especially those who live close to the resource extraction industry.
It is the easy money. The competition on the world scene is simpler.
Once it gets to producing machinery, assembling raw materials into complex objects for everyday use in households and industry, we are just not competitive.
A whole new mindset has to be created and supported by governments at all levels.
I give the ndp one year. Christy will be back.
Good god what do these people not get as to the real reason for mill closures-lack of timber of the right size, species and location to make it economically viable to mill into lumber. The pine beetle reduced timber supply to interior mills for the forseeable future and unless the little buggers are card carring members of the Liberal party there can be no blame placed at the feet of the governing party. Stability in the industry means a significantly smaller industry than in was a decade ago, with a few more mills likely to be mothballed in the coming year or two.
I’m sure that if the ndp/greens get in that they will make sure that the ICBC rates are changed so that the crown corporation does nit bring in a penny more than what is paid out. As it stands ICBC could be compared to a prive company where any profits go to the shareholders of the company, in this case the residents of the province. If any extra money from ICBC does not go into the provincial coffers then it would have to come from somewhere else and I’m pretty sure that the ndp money tree has not taken root yet.
Site C has $4.5 billion already spent or committed in signed contracts to mothball it at this point would be sheer lunacy. Hydro rates in Ontario have sky rocketed in part because the government(read hydro customers) was stuck paying billions for cancelled nearly completed gas fired generating plants in favor of “green” power…..as in you pay a lot more green for your power.
BTW Interesting side bar story on the speakers position:
250news.com/canadian-press/?loc=1&id=2b3be70e-b6c0-4af1-9660-8689a8d5aa44
Sparrow:-” As it stands ICBC could be compared to a private company where any profits go to the shareholders of the company, in this case the residents of the province. If any extra money from ICBC does not go into the provincial coffers then it would have to come from somewhere else and I’m pretty sure that the ndp money tree has not taken root yet.
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“…where any profits go to the shareholders of the company, in this case to the residents of the province.” Oh, would that it were so, Sparrow. But it isn’t. WE, ‘the shareholders’, are no more likely to ever get a dividend cheque from ICBC than we were to get one for our ‘share’ of BC Rail when Campbell peddled it.
That ‘extra money that goes into provincial coffers’ represents taxation without representation.
Why should any government be handed this money without any restriction whatsoever on how it should be spent? They don’t even have to ask us, the long suffering taxpayers who’ve coughed up this extra dough, over and above the actual cost of providing enough take to cover ICBC’s projected payouts, and can deflect any criticism that a more direct take in additional tax levies would engender. Criticism that would cause any government to pay a lot more attention on how it spends OUR money.
Why not turn ICBC into a mutual insurance company owned by the policyholders? Then any dividends from profitable operations accrue directly to us. Get the politics out of it once and for all.
Hey Sparrow, what planet do you live on?? have you even worked in the industry and if you have over the passed twenty-five years your singing the corporate song and little more. Pay attention to the facts not the spin your given to repeat, really.
On the same planet as you. He is just more aware of situations than you.
Starting to really get pissed with so called experts on this subject that they have little or NO real knowledge of the subject or history. Whatever party is in power the issue remains the same and the resolve depends on the willingness to do what’s right.
You have not shared with us what makes you an expert, nor based on you unique knowledge of the subject and history and what is the right thing to do.
so far you words are hollow. Too many Trump-like people out there who got the gonads to express their thoughts.
If one reads 250news.com/2017/02/17/150-million-for-reforestation with your “so called expert” information you provided with respect to tree planters, for instance, then read the response to your fable by slinky, one can easily tell you know zip about the woodland operations of forestry.
I agree with Millman55. Some of the information that we get posted here leaves on wondering how some people get their information. I suspect through repeating uban legends.
As an example. People continue to blame the closure of sawmills in BC on the shortage of timber and the pine beetle, and of course blame the NDP for the pine beetle infestation.
Fact of the matter is exports to the USA have increased on a regular basis since 1991 with the exception of the housing crises in the USA around 2005 and the recession of 2009. So the question is, how can we have an increase in exports of lumber and at the same time be shutting down mills because of a shortage of timber. The mills were shut down as a result of the Liberal Government cancelling the appurtenacy legislation, which then allowed the logs to go to mills all over BC. We will be facing more mill closures in the near future and this will be because of the decrease in the AAC and US duties on BC lumber.
The other urban legend is that that the shortage of timber is a result of the pine beetle infestation that apparently could have been stopped by the NDP. Have you ever noticed that people who harp on the pine beetle problem never make mention of the spruce beetle problem that resulted in a huge clear cutting of spruce timber in the Upper Bowron area starting around 1975. There was no action taken to stop this spruce infestation until 3.5 years after a major wind blow down, and the end result was the biggest clear cut in the world which could be seen from space. This happened in 1975 going forward and I should point out to you that the Government in power at that time was Social Credit (Bill Bennet)
So lets stop with the **BS** and give credit where credit is due. Do a little research, and quit repeating urban legends like holding frogs causes warts.
Have a nice day.
And that “biggest clear cut in the world” halted the progress of the spruce beetle and confined it to one area. The lack of action on the part of the NDP allowed the pine beetle infestation to cover a HUGE part of the province and decimated forests for hundreds and hundreds of miles in every direction. The spruce infestation was a boil on the ass of the province, the pine beetle was an almost fatal cancer.
As for log exports, how much comes from the interior of the province? Almost none. How much comes from private land sales and native lands? Almost all of it. How do you propose stopping the export of private and native timber?
How many sawmills operated on the north coast? West Fraser in Terrace? How much export comes from that area? A high percentage. How many sawmill closures has that export caused? How many jobs has that export created?
Do you even read your own words?
You wrote:
“Fact of the matter is exports to the USA have increased on a regular basis since 1991 with the exception of the housing crises in the USA around 2005 (which carried on for how many years?)and the recession of 2009 (which carried on for how many years?).
That means that the housing crisis dropped the exports to the USA, as did the recession. And those exports dropped for many more than just the 2 years you mentioned.
Then you wrote: So the question is, how can we have an increase in exports of lumber and at the same time be shutting down mills because of a shortage of timber?”
We did not have a continuous increase in exports to the USA. What we did have is a rush to cut timber in beetle infested areas to get as much wood out as possible while it was still usable. That moved the logging activity to the west, but the mills were fixed investments that were not relocated. In addition, we had 2 mills shut down for a few years due to inadequate safety measures in place.
At the same time, wood was gradually being sold to China as an alternate market to the US.
Now we have entered the period of lack of timber supply, especially in the Quesnel TSA, resulting in mill shut downs there. The same in our area – Netherlands, Rustad, and others.
Sorry, I do not know what fairy tale land you live in, Palopu. Your political leanings and beliefs are colouring your objective judgement.
Do the research.
Since you can’t provide the figures from StasCan, here are the cubic metres of annual lumber exports to the USA.
1988 21,113,388 Social Credit
1989 20,550,325 Social Credit
1990 17,075,657 Social Credit
1991 16,805,277 Social Credit/NDP
1992 19,227,831 NDP
1993 20,588,106 NDP
1994 21,701,559 NDP – start of MPB epidemic in BC
1995 21,867,228 NDP – highest volume export to USA
1996 21,187,067 NDP
1997 20,522,303 NDP
1998 20,246,760 NDP
1999 20,031,801 NDP
2000 19,625,087 NDP
2001 21,444,420 NDP/BC Libs
2002 23,191,832 BC Libs
2003 23,989,883 BC Libs – Appurtenance legislation at start of year
2004 26,610,625 BC Libs
2005 28,660,182 BC Libs – highest volume export to the USA
2006 27,683,346 BC Libs
2007 22,981,112 BC Libs – US housing bubble bursts mid year
2008 15,828,970 BC Libs – US housing crisis + US/global recession
2009 11,861,087 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2010 12,278,543 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2011 11,192,506 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2012 12,455,081 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2013 13,603,764 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2014 14,457,817 BC Libs – US housing crisis
2015 15,530,230 BC Libs – US recovery soft start
2016 19,478,264 BC Libs – US recovery starts
From MANAGEMENT OF THE MOUNTAIN PINE BEETLE EPIDEMIC IN BRITISH COLUMBIA’S PARKS AND PROTECTED AREAS Lyle Gawalko circa 2003
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“Park forests largely share the same forest profiles as other British Columbia forests due to past fire control policies which, until the last decade, stipulated that fires must be suppressed in parks .
The combination of warm weather and abundant hosts has led to the rapid expansion of mountain pine beetle populations in some parks, most notably Tweedsmuir Provincial Park.
A popular misconception developed that the current mountain pine beetle outbreak began in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park. While the large infestation in Tweedsmuir has no doubt contributed to the beetle population in some areas of north-western British Columbia, infestation centers in many other lodgepole pine stands across the north central and southern part of the province developed almost simultaneously and have rapidly grown beyond control.
These infestation centers share management challenges with Tweedsmuir, such as a history of fire control, abundant host, and remote location limiting access and treatment.”
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Major infestations also occurred in Colorado at the same time.
Whenever possible I have posted on here that the Tweedsmuire Park origin is a fake news story.
Here are the figures for China. Shows the effects of BCLibs going after a new market to mitigate effect of US becoming an unstable market.
Year Quantity gov party
1988 199,246 Socred
1989 51,628 Socred
1990 7,417 Socred
1991 20,126 Socred/NDP
1992 78,924 NDP
1993 217,304 NDP
1994 46,084 NDP
1995 41,314 NDP
1996 44,750 NDP
1997 19,509 NDP
1998 20,679 NDP
1999 23,804 NDP
2000 52,333 NDP
2001 90,580 NDP/BCLibs
2002 151,731 BCLibs
2003 205,408 BCLibs
2004 257,173 BCLibs
2005 251,254 BCLibs
2006 332,059 BCLibs
2007 639,230 BCLibs
2008 1,157,137 BCLibs
2009 2,507,763 BCLibs
2010 4,454,859 BCLibs
2011 7,215,643 BCLibs
2012 7,428,110 BCLibs
2013 7,912,749 BCLibs
2014 7,490,833 BCLibs
2015 6,581,965 BCLibs
2016 5,914,342 BCLibs
1. The BC Liberal Government doesn’t sell lumber. Lumber companies do. The idea that the China market was created by the Government is a myth. In fact it was created by Putin putting a 25% duty on the export of logs to China. This created a shortage of lumber in China, which (fortunately) for us we were able to fill to a large extent with beetle kill lumber. This lumber was sold cheap and did not go through a planer (for the most part) because it was used for concrete forming.
2.Big Corporations like Canfor have had sales offices in places like China, Japan, Korea, Europe for over 20 years, and certainly do not need any politician to help then sell lumber. I did not go into any detail in regards to the lumber sales to China, however this just means that we in fact exported more lumber not less, and still begs the question as to how we can increase lumber production, and shut down mills. We know that the answer is in increasing the production of super mills, and shutting down smaller mills. This was not possible with appurtenancy hence the legislation.
3. We will get the new AAC numbers this year, and with no softwood lumber agreement we will probably close more mills.
4. I notice you disregard the Socred boondoogle in regards to the Bowron Spruce Beetle fiasco.
5. I have no intention of writing a book to explain the machinations of Government. People can take my postings for what they are worth. Having 40+ years in the transportation and pulp and paper industry gives me some insight into what goes on in this Province.
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