Help AFA raise $250,000 by December 31st – we’re over halfway there!
Support the protection of old-growth forests in BC through Indigenous-led conservation, science, and public action. Donate to help safeguard ancient forests.
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TJ Watt2025-12-15 15:20:282025-12-15 17:55:17Help AFA raise $250,000 by December 31st – we’re over halfway there!
Chek News: Document reveals approval to harvest remnant old-growth in B.C.’s northwest
BC Timber Sales has ended a policy protecting remnant old-growth in northwest B.C., citing First Nations’ positions, sparking concerns from ecologists and residents.
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TJ Watt2025-12-08 13:49:362025-12-08 13:49:36Chek News: Document reveals approval to harvest remnant old-growth in B.C.’s northwest
Thank You to Our Silent Auction business Donors!
Thank you to these local businesses for generously donating items and experiences to our first-ever online Silent Auction!
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TJ Watt2025-12-08 13:17:322025-12-08 13:50:51Thank You to Our Silent Auction business Donors!
Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA
The Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s (PFAC) interim report falls short of addressing the root causes of BC’s forestry crisis or outlining the bold, decisive actions needed to reverse it, warn the Ancient Forest Alliance (AFA) and Endangered Ecosystem Alliance (EEA).
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TJ Watt2025-11-21 10:13:452025-11-21 10:15:43Statement on the Provincial Forest Advisory Council’s Interim Report – AFA & EEA
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Log exports a thorn in the side of communities
/in News CoverageWhile some business owners argue that raw log exports keep lumber companies solvent while they wait for the industry to turn around, others point out that tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in the lumber industry and raw log exports discourage creating new ones.
I have long opposed raw log exports. I’ve heard from too many people who lost their jobs and have seen strong companies like Madill shut down because our local lumber industry was in decline.
Now that the industry seems to be on an uptick with the Western Forest Products mill in Ladysmith starting up again, we still need a national forest strategy to keep the industry healthy and sustainable.
New Democrats have some solid ideas on what a strategy should include. We know that offering one-off programs like the green transformation fund can help immediate problems but we need other cost effective and efficient policies working together to support a long-term revitalization of the forestry sector.
A value-added tax credit program that escalates along with the level of local production would encourage job creation in forestry towns. Companies that ship raw logs would not qualify for this credit but others that use raw logs locally to produce paper, or veneer or other lumber products would.
Loan guarantees for large and small operations with significant business in the forestry sector is another important strategy to improve the industry. Guarantees give banks assurances that they will be paid back and helps release credit into the marketplace.
It is a strange situation that while consumers can access record-low mortgage rates right now, small and medium-sized businesses have had trouble getting credit.
With loan guarantees, lumber companies can re-tool and modernize their operations while maintaining their payroll.
None of these will work without concerted effort to reduce or eliminate the effect of unfair US subsidies for American mills. Providing a similar level of subsidy to Canadian mills could cost between $2 and $5 billion — but that isn’t what stakeholders here want. They want to compete on a level playing field.
So it is up to the federal government to negotiate with the Americans to ensure unfair subsidies are not propping up mills there.
That includes companies here deciding to export raw logs to their American operations to keep them profitable while Canadian mills close for lack of fibre.
Jean Crowder is the NDP Member of Parliament for Nanaimo-Cowichan.
Minister says more log shipping capacity needed in B.C.
/in News CoverageThe future of exporting logs from both Prince Rupert and Vancouver looks bright as Forest Minister Pat Bell announced on November 2 that Canada has surpassed Russia to become China’s largest trading partner when it comes to softwood lumber, but notes that now is not the time for B.C. to rest on its laurels.
“The number one thing we hear from CEOs here in China is about freight capacity for shipping to China. They are very concerned and say that we need to step up to ensure that the capacity is there,” said Minister Bell during a November 2 media call, noting that moving into the top position “is a reach benchmark”.
“Vancouver is almost at capacity and Prince Rupert has only incremental capacity available…It is one of the things we have already turned our attention to and Shirley Bond, the Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure, is already doing work in that area.”
Currently Prince Rupert ships both raw logs, with 264,389 tonnes shipped as of the end of September – an increase of 73 per cent compared to the same time period – and in containers through Fairview Terminal, and those numbers could see significant growth based on this recent trade mission to China. As well as attending the groundbreaking of a new four story housing complex that will have three stories built from lumber in a development area that is expected to house 100,000 people, Bell said there are three more mid-level and two low-level housing developments on the way and a new Memorandum of Understanding has been signed with a subsidiary of the largest importer of softwood lumber in the country.
“[The housing] is a first, a new entry into the Chinese market that will hold great benefits for B.C.,” said Bell, noting that Cedar is the most dominant lumber requested for high end housing in the county.
“We’ve moved away from having to build demonstration houses to attract developers and we are now at the point where they are approaching us.”
But Skeena – Bulkley Valley MP Nathan Cullen lashed out
at the Minister for his comments on the future of log exporting to Asia.
“Our capacity for shipping value-added products should be the question. It is great that we are interacting and trading with China, but to ship raw logs and resources when our mills are suffering is ridiculous,” he said during a November 3 media call.
“To hear the Minister of Forests talk about exporting raw logs is very frustrating…It is unconscionable for a forest minister to be talking about shipping raw logs, period. We should be scratching and fighting for all value-added product that we can get.”
B.C. minister denies selling out lumber industry in China
/in News CoverageSelling lumber, not logs, is the focus of a B.C. sales blitz in China, provincial Forests Minister Pat Bell said Monday.
Bell, speaking from China, lashed out at criticism of his government’s sales efforts and emphasized a just-completed deal for Vernon-based Tolko Industries Ltd. to sell about 364 million board feet of lumber to Chinese companies, including studs made of wood damaged by pine beetles.
“To suggest we should not try and build a brand new market is completely irresponsible,” Bell said.
Ken Wu, founder of the Ancient Forest Alliance, said last week that the government should bar the export of raw logs and old-growth wood to China.
Wu said stricter export regulations should be put in place to ensure Canadian manufacturing jobs do not move to China. Raw logs are increasingly attractive to China, where labour costs are cheaper than in Canada and factories can be built quickly, he said.
“It’s a set-up for a huge ramp-up for raw log exports because there’s no restrictions beyond saying they’re surplus to domestic needs.”
However, Bell said increasing sales of lumber, not raw log exports, is at the top of his agenda.
Currently, he said, lumber makes up 93 per cent of wood products going to China — the remaining seven per cent consists of raw logs.
“And the vast majority of that (raw logs) is from Coast Tsimshian Resources in the Terrace region where no mills are up and running, although we are working very hard to change that,” Bell said.
There is a detailed process to determine that export logs are surplus to B.C.’s needs before a permit is issued, Bell said.
The province regulates raw log exports from Crown lands and the federal government regulates exports from private land.
This summer it was estimated that during the first six months of the year, B.C had exported 387,000 cubic metres of low-grade logs to China, the world’s largest importer of logs.
“I don’t worry about it because we have a very clearly defined export process and only surplus logs are sold,” Bell said. “Also, it is far more efficient to ship kiln-dried lumber long distances than it is to ship logs.”