Beetle Plans Under Funded Says Committee
By 250 News
While organizers of the Stand up for the North Committee continue work on the final report from a recent weekend conference, the same Committee is raising questions about funding pledges.
Stand Up for the North Committee spokesperson Peter Ewart says the Provincial pledge to deal with the beetle disaster is "woefully inadequate" and not consistent with the "colossal sums of revenue the Interior contributes every year to the Provincial Government."
The funding issue was first presented at the conference that was held in Prince George earlier this month. The latest information from the Committee says while the impact of the beetle is expected to cost in the billions of dollars, the Provincial Government's Mountain Pine Beetle Action Plan promises only $500 million to deal with reforestation, environmental and economic needs.
Ewart's Committee is tracking the source of that $500 million dollars.
- $135 million (from the Northern Development Initiative Trust funding) came out of the sale of BC Rail
- A further $70 million actually came from the federal government
How to utilize the millions of hectares of beetle killed wood is a key issue for Interior communities says Ewart. In this regard, the Action Plan pledges a total of $6.3 million towards "product development." Ewart charges that this amount is not much more than the amount the Vancouver Olympic Organizing Committee has spent on computers for its staff and far less than the $8.5 VANOC's Annual Report (issued October 26, 2006) states was spent on moving, outfitting, and furnishing VANOC's campus office space
Ewart says the Provincial Beetle Action Plan's $161 million for reforestation is "worrisome". So far the beetle has impacted 8.6 million hectares of pine in the Interior and North, Ewart says when the 8.6 million hectares is divided into $161 million and averaged over the 5 years of the Action Plan, the figure works out to be about $3.75 a hectare. "Not much more than the price of a cup of coffee," he says.
According to Ewart, the amount of beetle money the Interior is getting back from the Province is not at all fair when compared to what the region contributes. Ewart says Jock Finlayson, executive vice-president of the BC Business Council, estimated the Provincial Government’s revenues from the forest industry (stumpage, taxes, etc.) amounted to $5.4 billion in the year 2004-2005, yet the funding for the pine beetle in the Action Plan, Ewart says, is just $500 million, about 1.8% of the estimated revenues produced by the forest industry and forest communities of BC during the 5 year time frame for the Action Plan.
According to Ewart, analysts based in the Lower Mainland of the province are already speculating some communities in the Interior will be written off and "marked for exit". Ewart believes the Provincial Government’s Action Plan is a sign the region is, in fact, being written off now.
Ewart says the time for community leaders to speak out about this "inadequate level of funding," is now, and not "when the mills begin to close and communities start to crumble."
The Stand Up For The North Committee hopes to have transcripts of the recent conference complete this week. Once the transcripts are complete, the final report and its recommendations will be formalized, and the Committee will take the report to communities throughout the region.
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Posted by: owl on November 14 2006 6:58 AM
1. the $161 is not for a 5 year period. It was announced in 2005, prior to the Beetle Action Plan and was to a 4 year program with an INITIAL amount. It is to the end of 2008/09 fiscal while the plan is to 2011. Read the web page linked here to see the details which shows that the expectation is for the program to reach $53.9 per year by the 2008/09 fiscal, remain at that level, and gradually decline as the work begins to taper off.
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/fft
I know that there are options which will likely be considered as time passes for more intensive silvicultural treatment as the trees grow to hopefully improve the rate of growth.
2. The statement is that beetle epidemic has spread to 8.7 million hectares of the province. Those lands are typically mixed stands which may or may not be harvested for any other conifers at the same time. In addition, it states that 20%of the beetle impacted forest will be retained for several reasons.
3. The company that logs a section of forest is responsible for reforesting them. The $161 million is not for paying the companies for what they are typically repsonsible for. It is a payment which is to offset the fact that some of the trees logged have been degraded to the point where they are no longer usable for wood products. In fact, part of it will be used to offset the damage done as a result of the southern interior wild fires in 2003 and 2004.
Here is the detail page of the funding announced two months ago.
http://www.for.gov.bc.ca/hfp/mountain_pine_beetle/actionplan/2006/SNAP_Funding_Breakdown.pdf
Among other things, it states quite specifically that of the $185 million provided to the NDIT fund, only $30 million was provided to the trust to use for PB mitigation.
What is missed in the entire approach is that the monies being talked about are those which are to be applied to forestry practices and product exploration directed to getting a reasonalbe value out of the timber and ensuring that the forests will eventually grow back as quickly as possible.
As quickly as possible is 60 to 80 years, depending on the location of the trees and what trees will be replanted. The money being discussed here, plus any money which has to be spent by the licensees to honour their license agreement will be spent withing the next 10 years at the most. After that, we are in the fall down period of about 40 to 50 years when the annual cut will be reduced substantially when compared to the pre beetle AAC, and even more so when compared to the current AAC activity.
From my point of view, the most important money which is sitting there at the moment is the remainder of the NDIT funds which was intended to go to regional diversification.
Also, the money which has been provided to the Omineca, Cariboo, and First Nations groups to plan how their communities can best deal with the economic turndown expected to happen unless they diversify their economies is extremely important.
Proper planning for diversification needs to happen and money needs to be available when viable plans are identified to invest in the implementation of those plans which show the best chance of survival.