Politics is funded by the bankers money through the multinationals that run our legislatures. As long as that is the case we have no hope for any forest industry future that is centered around the greater good for the community and people. We will have a forest industry that is factored only on the manipulated profit figures of bankers and investors on Wall Street.

IMO with electoral reform like the BCSTV we can begin to weed out the corruptible politicians of little virtue and install in their place people that derive their power from their constituents rather than Wall Street. Short of that we have the lesser of two evils for our choice and we will lose a lot more then our industry IMO.

I see obvious similarities between the provincial and federal governments.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper claimed he was committed to building a Canada that remains strong, united, independent and free, but his actions have pointed to the contrary. The Harper government held the forest industry at gun point by threatening to wash their hands from helping them fend off any more American sanctions if they did not consent to the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement.

It is beyond comprehension why the Canadian government flushed everything down the toilet including millions in legal fees when we continued to win at NAFTA tribunals.

Furthermore Harper generously gave one billion dollars to the U. S. as a reward for the misery they caused Canadians by collecting more than five billion in illegal tariffs.

Not only did this cover legal expenses the Americans incurred during their losing battle in the softwood lumber dispute with Canada, but provided them with a very healthy nest egg to use against us in disputes that are continuing to haunt Canadians since this deal went through.

The deals new recipe for export charges has greatly encouraged the export of raw logs right across Canada by excluding it from any export charges.

This deal enormously contributed to putting the Canadian forest industry in the worse shape in history. Harper sharpened the axe of the executioner and forced Canadians to bow their heads to the inevitable.

Unfortunately the BC Provincial government is following the foot-steps of the Federal government by exposing hard working tax payers in the forest industry and their families to the stench of sovereign and moral decay while waving the flag of democracy.

Shame on you !!!

To the good people of British Columbia, “Let us not forget in wake of the up-coming election”.

FYI - The possible results of BC government policies allowing the export of raw logs to China.

China May Export Newsprint to the U.S. Next Year

(Bloomberg) -- China, an importer of newsprint until 2005, may export the paper to the west coast of the U.S. as soon as next year, adding to pressure on North American makers such as Abitibi-Consolidated Inc. and Bowater Inc.

The Chinese domestic market won't be able to absorb the extra 1.6 million metric tons of newsprint capacity starting up there over the coming 18 months, said Alain Croisetiere, the general manager of the Chinese unit of Norske Skogindustrier ASA, the world's largest newsprint producer.

Abitibi-Consolidated, North America's biggest newsprint maker, and Bowater, Canada's No. 1 producer, have lost money since at least 2002 amid cost increases and declining demand for the paper in North America. China's more modern mills mean it's cheaper to make newsprint there according to a report by CIBC World Markets.

``It's going to worsen their lives,'' said Brian McClay, the president of industry analyst TerraChoice Market Services, Canada. ``It will hurt prices. It doesn't have to be a big tonnage to make an impact on the market.''
Newsprint prices in the U.S. have risen 8.3 percent in the past year to $640.92 a ton, according to FOEX Ltd., which provides pulp and paper price indexes.

The increase has been driven purely by mill closures, McClay said. Demand for the product has been declining in North America since 1997, he said.

Extra Capacity

``You will see Chinese newsprint selling in U.S. west coast very, very soon,'' Croisetiere, the general manager of Hebei Norske Skog Long-Teng Paper Co., said in an interview at a paper conference in Shanghai.

The extra capacity in China has already forced local newsprint prices down 18 percent since early 2005, Croisetiere said. That's prompted Norske Skog, which makes 13 percent of the world's newsprint, to begin exports from China to places including Hong Kong and Thailand.

Local companies such as Shandong Huatai Paper Ltd., Guangzhou Paper Co., Shandong Chenming Paper Holdings Ltd., are spending hundreds of millions of dollars on modern newsprint machines and technology from Europe's Voith AG, Andritz AG and Metso Paper Inc., according to the companies' Web sites.

The new machines will take production to as much as 4.3 million tons soon Croisetiere said.

Thanks Ben, this issue really needs to be exposed before it becomes the new forest industry in B.C. When Canfor doesn't need mills in B.C. [NCP], a nice new port in Rupert is built, and there is no 15% duty on raw log export it is starting to stink. Our Liberal government has no problem reducing stumpage fees for large multi-national forest companies [Canfor in Mackenzie] when they whine about no profit. Perhaps the Liberals could increase stumpage fees to large multi-national forest companies when they place B.C. unprocessed wood on a boat bound for export. Mr Bell and the Liberal government have been very quiet on this very scary issue.

Perhaps people should stop buying cheap made-in-China wood-based products instead of blaming the government?

Yeah, I didn't think so. Heaven forbid Wal-Mart and it's ilk go out of business.

It is all greed is it not?

Yeah, it's unfortunate, but when Chinese labour is pennies compared to North American labour it's not hard to see why they do this. As zoop noted, people continue to buy cheap made in China products so we're all responsible.

Great posts and great insight IMO.

The first post refers to the incestuous relationship between the corporate forest industry powerhouses and the governments, to a degree of which is not in the public's best interests.
The second post describes the federal role in a disasterous softwood deal.
I am fully convinced that these two things are connected and that the softwood "deal" was "intended" to serve the largest corporations of this country while penalising their competition. The incestuous "intentions" were IMO,to facilitate the further concentration of the few select major corporations at everyone's expense, their competitors, the public, jobs and revenues to the crown.

It goes against logic that our government simply conceded to this softwood deal when all indications were that we were winning the last battles.
It goes against probabilities that the majors were not fully in support of what they "thought" would have facilitated their ultamate goal of absolutely dominating the north american wood industry.
Suffice it to say that the softwood deal does not land equally or properly upon the non majors remaining in the forest industry.

The softwood "deal" was signed off by a naieve prime minister grasping for a political "win" and the US government which was exhausted by the unruly US softwood coalition (several US forest companies). Many political and corporate patts on backs occured while the hand shaking photos were taken.
Immediately after the government to government "deal" was signed two of our largest canadian softwood corporations took their refunds (what were supposed to be illegal subsidies) and bought out two substantial US coalition member companies (with several substantial facilities).
Somehow the softwood agreement, "the deal" involved the refunds which were either profits or illegal subsidy (made from Canadian operations) were used to buy out the US companies which were funding the court actions against our country's supposed illegal subsidy? US corporations were quickly shaking hands with canadian corporations making a "deal" of their own. Mindboggling!
It is very hard to believe that this was not a part of the overall making of the "deal",IMO.

This is about both controlling the markets and domination of the governments which control the natural resources.

What most people and probably most politicians do not understand are the complicated details of this "deal" and who OR how they give advantage to, OR deliberately disadvantage to. Complicated details because no one is supposed to understand the truth, the motivations or the results.

Reducing competition, stumpage, taxes and environmental regulations are key factors to the "good as gold future" of the few select corporations which are supposed to survive the "softwood deal",IMO.

IMO, what the majors and the "federally appointed trade minister"(former CEO of canfor) underestimated in the crafting of this plan was the degree of the US housing crisis.
Had this crisis not been so bad or lingered so long, the concentration of the north american forest industry would have been much worse by now(for the public).

It remains to be seen as this crisis lessens as to; how, who and what will be left of the forest industry?--because ironically, the majors nearly swamped their own boat as well.

Wheres the people that have posted here in the past claiming log exports are a myth.
It's all criminal and we the people need to put a stop to it.

You are right Ben, and it is a crime to let our jobs, resources and our very heritage go to a foreign country. I find it utterly asinine that our "government" would even contemplate such idiocy, let alone condoning the actual practice. They must be so very chronically short sighted, for if one thinks about the matter for a millisecond, one would realize that not exporting whole logs would keep A LOT OF TAX right here in the once beautiful province, and WHERE does that tax go? DUH!
Is this government in bed with the chinese?
metalman.

It does appear that since Oil&Gas revenues have surpassed forestry the province just doesn't care. Chipping big logs really is a environmental nightmare. It's sick because those chips replace the small stuff that is now just being wasted during harvest.

Someone pointed out it really is the end user who is driving this because they want cheep stuff. True, but sometimes it's really hard for the individual to connect this end result. That is where responsible government is, well supposed to be responsible and help make these big picture decisions. They can help plan a future and help develop a more diversified forest sector.

I think some leaders believe Responsible is to Government as Krypton is to Superman ;-)

Lostfaith...yes we do have to put nearly a stop to log exports because it is likely to get much worse IMO.

When and not if, the markets improve we will enter the new era of which virtually all BC timber will be economically exportable in raw log form.

Log prices will rise and they will rise high enough to reach every part of our province. We haven't seen this export very far from the coast because the price is not yet high enough to transport it that far.

The very simple question will be; do the corporations which hold the timber rights invest in BC facilities or do they simply export their logs for a similar net profit?
A net profit with virtually no risk.
I think the evidence is clear from what has happened on the coast, that when provided this opportunity, the mills are conveniently deemed inefficent and are closed.

Local processing requirements (appurtenance) which we had but lost because of lieberal wisdom, is the true devil here, far more than exportability in general.

woodchipper,you just hit the nail right on the head, great post! Hopefully our politicians can pull their heads out of their corporate friends butts to see it.

When Weyerhauser shut down their Okanagan Falls mill they stated that their log quota from same would be utilized by their Princeton operations. Well, wouldn't you know it, ever since they shut down there is an endless stream of loaded logging trucks heading over the Osoyoos/Oroville border crossing. Incidentally a large number of those trucks are U.S. licensed.

My question is: why, if as they have stated they don't need our lumber due to a lack of demand for their own production, then why in the hell do they need our logs?

Campbell has screwed this province once again.

When you think of the many things which are going wrong with our forest industry you start to become alarmed about how this could have gotten so bad.

The current and enormous wasting of merchantable timber for instance is simply unbelievable. For decades the public demanded and government increased regulations concerning waste. Then the current government reversed this by a policy which allows the companies to decide which trees they want and which trees they leave, as long as the stumpage is paid. Who decided that all a tree is worth is the stumpage?

The scaling of our public forest resources was a very important requirement until this government said it was ok to have the people cutting and wasting also doing the "guessing" of what they were wasting.
Its called waste billing and as far as I am concerned a complete joke of a system which estimates volumes by company scalers of how much wood is left to rot or burnt.

Who decided these things? Who examined the details of this in government, legally ethically, morally? Anyone?
Where are all the registered professional foresters who swear to a code of ethics?
The ministry of forests used to revere these accountable professionals and has many on staff and most are in senior levels. Apparently their paychecks are more important than our forests.

Where are the environmentalists in all this? How do you buy off these people who supposedly don't want money?

Isn't something so obviously and outragously wrong--actually illegal.
Do we not have government legal people that keep the government from braking its own laws?
Do these legal people just change laws so that these improper things are made to be allowed because of political directions of which are just corporate demands?

Isn't there just one MLA which has the backbone to try to put a stop to this?

The big multi-nationals bought up our forest industry with debt they got from Wall Street. Debt financed the consolidation to get efficiencies of cost down.
Debt heavy forest companies do not have a lot of profit margin to fight predator pricing with.

All that will be left of our forest industry will be monopolized multi-nationals and the predatory pricing Chinese selling their 'surplus' demand that is subsidized by us in their free trade end run around our cost of living wages and environmental costs that our industry has to pay to compete with their subsidized industry, which is paying slave labor rates with no to few environmental standards.

How can free enterprise take place in that kind of environment? Its not even capitalism, because for the imports we are not playing by the same rules... and with the debt financed industry consolidation its not capitalism because the bankers, and not the plant operations, are determining who the winers and who the losers will be. So I call it banksterism because they seem to be the only people winning at this and they know of loyalty to no international boundaries.

I wrote the above post yesterday, but just as I went to post, all the power went out. I figured I lost the post, but when I refreshed my browser this morning it was all still there... so thats cool.

The issue of log exports WAS a case of just being a symptom of our processing facilities; falling behind, run poorly, not adapting quick enough etc.

That WAS a period of which the major licencees were obligated to operate a local processing facility and fully utilize all timber which they cut.

NOW that major licencees are allowed to export any/all of their timber it is entirely a different matter.It is also another disaster in the making that timber is no longer required to be utilized.

Log exports are usually the sale of premium only grades or specific desired species. If these premium prices are high enough, then all other lower grades and undesirable species can be simply cut down and left to rot or be burnt.

Log exports are no longer just a symptom, they are a very attractive and a "risk free" option to licensees. Why would anyone spend a 100+ million to build a sawmill when they can simply export their timber for about the same net profit?
Why would anyone fool with marginal value timber of which every forest has and has always had?

While China can no doubt process cheaper than we can, we do not need to help them build their capacity by exporting a large amount of our timber to them.

Even Russia has figured this out and they are now restricting their log exports to practically nothing--in order to ensure that forest companies invest in and operate processing facilities in their home country. As the log exports from Russia dry up the next best place for a source is the west coast of north america.

If we do not change back to having the requirement to local processing and proper utilization we will likely never have anything but a very wastefull log exporting industry.

Not a symptom but a garantee.

Woodchiper why aren't you running for politics. I would vote for you and I'm sure others would too, not because you are pretty like the rest of the politicians, but rather because your arguments make logical sense. You should think about giving it a try IMO.