In the wake of the pine beetle: What can be done to renew our community and region?
By Peter Ewart
Sunday, February 26, 2006 03:49 AM
- By Peter Ewart
It is common knowledge that the pine beetle infestation of our Interior and Northern forest is cutting a swath across our region and will pose serious challenges to our communities in the years ahead. That being said, the fundamental issue before us is: What can be done to renew our community and region?
Northerners have a long history of overcoming huge obstacles. First Nations people were the first to establish viable communities many thousands of years ago facing the most difficult conditions. But they not only survived, they flourished. Similarly, the pioneers of the forest industry hacked and hewed and sweated, and were able to establish one of the most productive wood industries in the world.
Today, we face a big challenge in the wake of the pine beetle infestation. Like our ancestors, we, too, must rise to the occasion. We can and must find solutions and a way forward, not only for ourselves, but for the generations that are to come.
How can we do this? First and foremost, we must call upon all the people, communities and sectors to come together to get educated about this issue and to further the discussion about what solutions are necessary to renew our communities and region.
Historically, when big issues come up in forestry or other sectors, all too often the provincial government of the day tries to script a process whereby we end up getting a “made-in-Victoria” solution. This must not happen with the pine beetle issue. We need a “made-in-the-North” solution which can only come about by involving all sectors of the community in the discussion, whether it be business, labour, First Nations, educators, youth, elderly, media, etc. and all shades of political allegiance or opinion.
We face a serious regional problem in British Columbia. Political power and population is centred in the Lower Mainland, and government tends to be overly preoccupied with that area, despite the fact that our region and other regions in rural British Columbia contribute a huge amount to the provincial economy and government revenues. There is a serious risk that our concerns and issues will be even more marginalized and sidelined in the years to come.
To counteract that Lower Mainland bias, it is not enough to have a few political representatives raise concerns. Nor is it enough just to have a few members of the community to go cap in hand to Victoria. We need a full-blown movement of the people that has the aim, in the wake of the pine beetle infestation, of renewing our communities and region, and building our future. Government can ignore individuals, but it cannot ignore the movement of an entire region.
Such a movement cannot be under the thumb of any political party. Its sole allegiance must be to the people and communities of this region and to the good of the province as a whole.
Such a movement cannot belong to one organization or one sector of the populace. It must be open to all. Therein will lie its strength.
To discuss what people and communities can do to renew our communities and region in the face of the pine beetle problem, a public forum, organized by the Active Voice Coalition, is scheduled for 7pm, on Thursday, March 2nd at the College of New Caledonia (room 1-316). Speakers include Ben Meisner (Editor - Opinion250), Ben Parfitt (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives), Don Zurowski (Community Futures & City Councilor), Debora Munoz (City Councilor) and Lara Beckett (Eco-forestry advocate). Everyone is invited to come out and participate.
History demands that we step forward to solve this problem facing our region. We owe it to our forefathers. We owe it to our children.
For further information: Contact Peter Ewart at (250) 962-6792 or peter.ewart@shaw.ca
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Posted by: diplomat on February 26 2006 5:47 PM
Energy security,
Transportation, and
Eco-tourism.
Energy security should be a multi prong approach involving government, industry, and unfortunately multi-national capital. I would like to see the multi-nationals involved in the oil and gas sectors developing pipelines and expoloration projects as well as coal mining. I would like to see BC Hydro (only) build and manage Site C of the WAC hydro dam.
I think the role of govenment and industry have a real opportunity that is been overlooked and allowed to slip through our grasp by our current governments. We have 6 million hectors of dead forest that will never be logged for forest products and yet it must be logged if we are to replant the forest for future generations. I would propose governments at all levels invest yesterday in a state of the art infrastructure at the community level for Co-generation power and possibly the production of ethonal.
We should at minimum have government support for Co-gen plants in Houston, Vanderhoof, and Quesnel where the super mills are located so we can shut down the beehive burners and create enough electricity to power 100,000 homes in the North. This should be quickly followed by Co-gen plants in other places like Fort St James, Mackenzie, Smithers, and Williams Lake. Its all about salvaging the dead pine trees, getting the most value out of our tree harvest, and providing energy security for the Northern communities. With all this investment in energy security and eco-resposibility we will require nearly a hundred hog fuel trailers on the road and we should be investing in a local company to build and service these units with the idea of this hog trailer industry being the incubator for a commercial container transportation manufacture. Obviously this may require a new steel mill in the North and all that it would entail in spin offs for the manufacturing industry.
With our ability to contribute our own commercial infrastructure needs to our new container trading routes we could fully benefit from the new position of being on the worlds newest and potentially most important trading route. We build the trailers and containers here in the North, we manage the shipping industry here in the North, and we attract quality manufactures that want energy security, access to resources, and the ability to tap into directly the most efficient trading routes in the world.
Finally Northern BC is the worlds most spectacular untapped wilderness for eco-tourism and the potential of this industry is the potential for 50 million high end big dollar tourists a year employing guides that make $50-90,000 a year promoting and protecting our environment for future generations and the world.
Time Will Tell