Province to assist communities impacted by logging shortfall

Despite an announcement to keep the province's forest sector competitive, the government is readying to help logging-dependent communitiesaffected byan impending timber shortage.

Forests MinisterSteve Thomson appeared on CBC's Daybreak North to discuss measures the government is taking to ensure communities affected by reductions in the annual allowable cut remain economically stable.

"People know this day has been coming," said Thomson.

"As part of the plan, we will be consulting directly with communities, and we're looking at how we help diversify the economies in those communities."

According to the province, harvest levels are expected to decrease substantially in theCariboo, Omineca, Thompson/Okanagan and Skeena regions. The decline comes after a surge of logging operations that were meant to extract timber that wasdevastated by the mountain pine beetle.

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The province now expects a 20 per cent decrease in the allowable cut from pre-infestation levels, and says itcould last for nearly five decades.

Thomson says the government has committed $75 million to communities with a population of 25,000 or less that will be the most adversely affected by the reductions.

Raw log exports

NDP forestry critic Harry Bainssays the string of recent government announcements surrounding the B.C.forest sector are simply election talk after 15 years of mishandling the renewable resource.

"We have lost 25,000 jobs since 2001 in the forest sector, and over 150 mills have been shut down," said Bains, adding the province continues to permitthe export ofraw logs overseaswhich has led to the widespread closures of B.C.pulp and paper mills.

"We've seen mills here that are not running at full capacity, and at the same time we're seeing record raw log exports from the province," he said.

"Either you process the raw material in the province and create jobs in the province for the people of the provinceor you ship the raw material overseas and have those jobs created in those counties, and then we buy back the finished products," said Bains.

"That's not theright economics," he added.

Thomson says the raw log exports are essential to the province'sforest economy and add significant value to the coastal forest harvest, which forms the the bulk of log exports.

With files from CBC's Daybreak North

To hear the full interview, listen to the audio labelled: NDP forestry critic Harry Bains says B.C. Liberals have ignored the forestry industry for 15 years