Ban Raw Log Exports
In 1997 approximately 260,000 cubic metres of raw logs were exported from British Columbia. Since that time, under a provincial Liberal government, that amount has increased dramatically to over 4,000,000 cubic metres.
Raw logs ready to exported from BC Photo: Joe Foy
In February of 2002 the provincial Liberal government, in a direct contradiction of a pre-election promise passed an Order-in-Council that saw 2.7 million cubic metres of raw logs exported over three years from BC's beleaguered North Coast. To get an idea of how many trees BC is exporting - a tree the size of a telephone pole is equivalent to 1 cubic metre.
This increase in raw log exports is troubling because British Columbia is already a province that already gets very little value-added manufacturing from its timber. According to research done by West Coast Environmental Law: Value-added products represent only 8.5% of all solid wood exports for BC in 1997, compared to 30.6% for other Canadian provinces; BC gets about 12.3% of its forestry jobs from the value-added sector, while Oregon gets 40%; and the value-added sector generates on average 4 times the number of jobs than primary manufacturing in BC.
Getting more value from the wood that we cut in BC should be a priority. Government needs to maximize the value and jobs we get instead of minimizing the economic return on trees that are cut in BC. To achieve maximum benefit we need to process and manufacture our timber right here in BC.
If BC were to add just minimal value to raw log exports, such as processing these logs in sawmills and pulp mills, every one million cubic metres of log would produce an additional 790 processing jobs. This is a very conservative figure as it encompasses minimal processing and does not include jobs in forestry sectors, such as logging, silviculture and government that are considered to be unaffected by raw log exports.
It is sad to think about the continued mismanagement of our public forests. In 2003, the last year in which full statistics were available, just over 4,000,000 cubic metres of raw logs were exported out of BC - representing over 3,000 lost local jobs. If the BC LIberal government banned raw log exports and increased value-added manufacturing we could cut fewer trees in BC, protect our dwindling biodiversity and employ more people at the same time.
Astoundingly the provincial government is allowing raw log exports under the ruse that these logs are surplus to the mill capacity in the province. This is clearly not the case as BC in fact has an over capacity of mills. In fact, the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada, the Pulp, Paper and Woodworkers of Canada, and the Woodworkers for Fair Forest Policy Society represented by Sierra Legal Defence Fund are challenged the legality of the provincial government's decision to increase raw log exports based on this faulty rationale.
"Do I like the fact that raw logs are exported out of BC? Absolutely not. I think that anyone with half a brain would tell you our preference and goals should be to process all that timber here in BC."
Michael de Jong, Minster of Forest
