Proposed Working Forest Denies BC Citizens their Public Land
BC's public lands, like Flores Island near Tofino, are indispensable for the resolution of First Nations’ land rights, the tourism industry, outdoor recreation, biodiversity and clean drinking water. Public lands enable public standards to be set to protect the environment and jobs. Photo credit: Ian Mackenzie
The Working Forest Initiative would allow government to easily sell-off publicly owned forest lands, and would zone all public lands not currently in parks for industrial use
British Columbians are among the richest citizens in the world. Why? Because collectively we own 92 percent of the land base in our province. This includes nearly all of our forests. It includes the lands where we hike, camp, fish, hunt, and from where we draw almost all of BC’s drinking water. It includes the lands where rural British Columbians work. It includes the unceded territories of First Nations. And it includes the habitats of salmon, grizzly bears, moose and a rich array of other wildlife.
In most countries almost all of the land is in private hands, with private corporations reaping profits from the land and resources they own and control.
In BC, public ownership of lands means citizens can more readily direct government to use the lands in the peoples’ best interests – to provide economic benefits for local communities, supply clean water, sustain both the wildlife and timber supply, settle treaties with First Nations, and create parks. We can require that the use of public lands be based on high labour and environmental standards.
On private forest lands BC logging companies routinely deny public entry. More private land in BC will mean less public access and rights of usage for recreational purposes. Photo credit: Scott Tanner
This would all change with the Liberals’ proposed “Working Forest Initiative” and its enabling legislation known as Bill 46. This proposed bill is a sweeping and fundamentally anti-democratic law that will restrict the rights and freedoms of BC citizens on their own lands. If this bill is passed, the Working Forest Initiative will then streamline the procedures to make privatization of our public lands easier. It will lock up every single hectare of public land outside of parks into restrictive industrial use. It will limit public land use decision-making and the flexibility to diversify our economy. It will profit a few and impoverish many.
Incredibly, the Working Forest would span 45 million hectares, or 100% of BC’s public forests lands not currently within parks. Only 8 million hectares of forests, less than half of which are commercially productive, are protected in parks. This fall the BC Liberals plan to pass Bill 46 and afterwards, the Working Forest Initiative. Only an uproar of massive proportions — as citizens achieved to stop the privatization of the Coquihalla Highway — will stop this ruthless initiative being pushed by the provincial government.
