I bet the NDP is hoping for the good old days when people were losing their homes or just walking away from their mortgages. The NDP know that when people get desperate they will believe anything.

What a waste of time. They're going to talk about 1,800 'jobs' that've been lost? Because of the current slump? What about the thousands and thousands of 'jobs' that are being shed year by year in this industry when there is NO slump?

Just look at what the average four or five man logging crew can put down in wood today compared to what it would've taken in men a decade or two ago to do that same volume. And back then they had larger and better trees.

Just look at the 'production per man' on the floor of a modern mill compared with the mills of yesteryear. Way higher, and again with ever poorer trees.

And tell me that these advances in 'productivity' are going to stop where they currently are. There's no way that they are. Each new piece of logging equipment or sawmilling machinery will be made MORE productive than the previous ones were.

And tell me, too, that you can find 'SALE', anywhere in the world, at a price that's still sufficient to cover the 'costs', for ALL the ADDITIONAL LUMBER these productivity increases are going to allow. When we can't sell ALL we're cutting right now.

Sure, lowering the 'price' of each 'unit' produced helps broaden the market. But it is the TOTAL COST of ALL the 'units', present and ADDITIONAL, that have to be totally liquidated in order to effect enough 'cost' savings to still be profitable and keep going. Impossible.

The only way you CAN preserve 'jobs' are(a)to eschew any further technological progress that displaces labor, and (b) make sure there is ALWAYS a market for ALL the lumber you're turning out. Neither condition is present, (a) isn't even desirable, unless you're making a case for 'drudgery' as a desirable human condition, and (b) should be self-evident. There ISN'T always a market for ALL the lumber your turning out. Now. And making 'more' of it won't do a damn thing towards solving that problem.

But we're going to have a 'summit, and make everyone feel happy that we'll find some solution to preserve 'jobs'. Give it up, already. You're attacking the wrong problem.

Then go to the summit and make those points, socredible. That is what it would be for. After all, not everyone in BC reads the comments made on Opinion250.

I'm confused is there hope or is there no hope for our environment? But then again greed will always rein.

Cheers

If the average citizen took the time to go to this so called "summit",he would be given no more considerstion for his opinions than a fly on the wall.
If in fact they even found the time to allow him to speak!
This is how our leaders justify their existance, but that doesn't mean they actually acomplish anything!
But we already knew that!

Doncha wish the NDP were in power now? They could spend hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars to help these poor companies. Sure worked fer Skeena Cellulose didn't it? Everything goes in cycles. The forestry will come around again.

Your right Harbinger,it will come around again,but it's gonna be a very long bumpy road getting there!
And NO!,I do not wish the NDP were in power again!!
The Skeena fiasco was a prime example of what NOT to do!
That boner ranks right up there with Fast Ferries!

Excellent point Harbinger

You're absolutely right Andy. It's would be a 'summit' for those who are going 'tell us' what THEY want us to hear.

Not one where any of us could make them listen, (the ones in government, or want to be), to what THEY don't want to hear.

But 'public opinion'expressed in venues like Opinion 250 is a powerful force. It stopped the sale of the Coquihalla, just through it's expression by 'the ordinary people' in the media. (Too bad it couldn't have been sustained, it might've prevented the rise in the toll ~ on a road that was long ago paid for. ( And that's by former Premier Bill Bennett's own admission on TV several years ago.))

I think a summit like this has value for communities that wish to see the harvest in their community stay in their community to be processed, which is a public policy that has huge implications to all forestry dependent communities.

It is after all a crown resource we are talking about.

I don't think the summit would have any value if it was all about telling forest companies how to conduct their operations of the mills themselves.

I agree Chadermando.
It actually IS all about milling it where you cut it,but try telling that to the forest companies!
It used to be done that way!

You can't get what 'should' be done, ("milling it where you cut it")as long as there's more 'money' to be made in selling 'tenure' than there is in selling 'lumber'.

ammonra said,
not everyone in BC reads the comments made on Opinion250.

True ammonra, but, you may be pleasantly surprised to know, many of us in B.C.( and other parts of Canada) do read and comment here. That's the great part of this technology, we can be made aware of each others problems and situations almost instantly.

Socred - Why 'all' the 'quotation marks'? It doesn't 'help' people take your 'opinion' seriously.

Well, D to S, if that's all it takes I'll omit them.