“This new Provincial Forest Advisory Council has been appointed for one reason only,” said Stamer, “to keep the Green Party happy, so they will prop up David Eby’s government a little while longer.”

This week’s announcement by the Eby NDP government of another advisory committee is more bad news for a forest industry in crisis, according to Ward Stamer, Conservative Official Opposition Forests Critic.

“This new committee has been appointed for one reason only,” said Stamer, “to keep the Green Party happy, so they will prop up David Eby’s government a little while longer.”

Stamer noted that the creation of the committee was one of the conditions that the Greens demanded in exchange for supporting Eby.

“The Greens talk a good game about sustainability and stewardship,” said Stamer. “This is a group of lawyers and city folks who only ever step foot in a forest to go hiking or bird-watching. Their only goal is to turn the entire province into one big provincial park.”

“We’ve lost tens of thousands of jobs in the forest industry. Most of the people on this committee played some kind of role in shutting down mills, removing fibre from the timber supply, and throwing loggers and mill workers on the unemployment line.”

“The NDP continue to rely for advice on the people who have got us into this mess in the first place: most of them have no skin in the game, no real idea how the forest industry actually works,” said Stamer. It’s not just the threat of U.S. tariffs that has pushed our forest industry in survival mode. It’s mismanagement and lack of leadership.”

“On softwood duties, for example, they’ve bungled the file from day one. Their flawed old growth management system that doesn’t address forest health. It has played a role in raising the wildfire risk, especially in residential areas near some of their so-called protected areas.”

“Their stumpage fees and costs are the highest in North America. They constantly change permitting regulations.”

“If David Eby truly cared about the forest sector, he would put a representative from the Council of Forest Industries on this committee,” said Stamer. “And he would include Conservative MLA’s and Green MLA’s. He would listen to people who go to work every day in the forests.”