Sell Raw Logs To China? Of Course, Its The Canadian Way Of Doing Things : One Man's Opinion

By Ben Meisner

  It may begin as a trickle, then grows into a stream and then finally, into a raging river.

That describes the forest industry as we know it today in the province of British Columbia.

For some as yet  unexplained reason, we continue to take the position that the forest industry can go away and this province will be just fine thank you. That kind of mentality exists even more so in the central and Northern parts of B.C.

"Diversify"  is the buzz word that we hear, we need to have value added, we need to look for other industries to make up for a loss of a few jobs in the forest industry.

That attitude will get us to the poor house, the only question is when.

Consider this; the Province is in Beijing trying to sell China our wood products. Prince George is following up with a junket to the Olympics. We need to diversify you know , get some athletes to train in Prince George leading up to the 2010 Olympics , that will go a long way to offset the effects of the forest collapse.   The thinking is, build a few wood homes in China and the door opens to millions , that is the mentality.  Problem with that thinking is while we may believe it,  the Chinese don’t see it that way.

Some of the people taking the latest trip should perhaps take a swing by their local building supply store.  That's where they will see the Chinese products offered for sale. Want some windows and doors ?  Want some plywood ?  Want some cedar products, (well not really cedar but Chinese fir that looks almost the same) don’t go to Beijing, we are offering it to you right at home and the market is growing.

We have indeed taught the Chinese about the benefit of using wood, they have opened up new mills in Russia; they are cutting their own wood and are buying any low end lumber on the market from surrounding countries. Now does that sound like a country that is standing at your door begging for you to sell them finished products?  

We showed them how to do it and they are doing it.

Want the best opportunity sitting out there for container cars heading back to China?  How about raw logs?  After all we have shut down mills , take Terrace for example, which frees up those logs. What do you do with them?  Well the argument will be , send them to China , after all its better than having no one work in the forest industry.

So can we look forward to a serious effort to get raw logs moving to China which will then return as plywood, and other value added products that we should have been making in this country?  Of course we can, but then , isn’t that the Canadian way of doing things?

I’m Meisner and that’s one man’s opinion.

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