The B.C. government is backing off from some of its coastal forest industry reforms as Vancouver Island and coastal logging has ground to a halt due to high costs and a six-month strike against Western Forest Products.
Forests Minister Doug Donaldson has announced that the NDP governmentB次元官网网址檚 plan to increase coastal log export charges is being delayed for six months, and new rules to require removal of waste wood from logging sites are also being eased.
Provincial stumpage fees on timber from Crown land are also being substantially cut, and the formula changed to make logging more viable, Donaldson told a meeting of unemployed industry contractors in Port Hardy on Thursday.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e revisiting and revising the stumpage system on the coast, and as of Jan. 1 it will be a lumber-based system primarily, versus a log price system,B次元官网网址� Donaldson said. B次元官网网址淭hat means that the average stumpage rate on the coast will be $8.82 cents [per cubic metre] versus $18.73 now.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e able to do that because itB次元官网网址檚 an annual review process and we want to make sure that the factors that go into stumpage are the same as they are in the Interior, so it wonB次元官网网址檛 be in any way seen as a political intervention in the softwood lumber dispute. But it will make an impact, and weB次元官网网址檝e heard that from you and others.B次元官网网址�
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Donaldson and North Island MLA Claire Trevena have faced demands by forest contractors and workers to do something about the United Steelworkers strike against Western, and to offer assistance to contractors who have no say in the labour dispute, canB次元官网网址檛 work and donB次元官网网址檛 qualify for Employment Insurance. Community leaders in North Island communities have pleaded with Premier John Horgan that homes are being sold, trucks repossessed and food banks overwhelmed.
Trevena opened the meeting by pleading for patience. (See video below.)
B次元官网网址淭here is no magic wand,B次元官网网址� she said. B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e not going to be able to fix everything at once.B次元官网网址�
Donaldson said the new penalties for leaving usable wood waste behind are being updated.
B次元官网网址淲eB次元官网网址檙e revising the fibre recovery zone boundaries, based on cost data that we finally received from industry on where those boundaries should be more refined,B次元官网网址� Donaldson said. B次元官网网址淲e do want to see more residuals brought out of the forest but we understand we have to refine the boundaries of those areas so they make economic sense.B次元官网网址�
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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