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“I am a Canadian, free to speak without fear, free to worship in my own way, free to stand for what I think right, free to oppose what I believe wrong, or free to choose those who shall govern my country. This heritage of freedom I pledge to uphold for myself and all mankind.” ~~ John G. Diefenbaker

Forest Critic and MLA Ward Stamer asks, “Can Ravi Parmar convince his boss it’s essential to change how we access timber and fibre in this province?”

“…at this rate, no one is going to have a job in this industry because forestry will have completely collapsed.”

This week, the provincial government of NDP Premier David Eby made more announcements about their ‘so-called’ commitment to BC’s forestry sector. The problem, however, is that they’re still failing to address the very real problems at hand.

“They can make all of the announcements they want, including the latest, which the provincial government says will shift approval for special use permits from the ministerial level to district managers. This, they say, will make it easier for permit holders to carry out deactivation and remediation activities on Crown land,” stated Conservative forestry critic Ward Stamer

“To put it bluntly, ‘Big Deal’. What about speeding up the approval process for cutting timber, instead of it taking upwards of three years?”

While the NDP government promised mills they would have 45 million cubic meters of fibre this year, they are actually on target for less than 30 million.

To that, the Kamloops-North Thompson MLA responded, “That’s not enough fibre to keep the province’s sawmills running, and likely why we have to import wood chips from the US to keep our pulp mills running. We need significant changes in how we access fibre in this province, not just address backlogs after logging has taken place.”

While a new Forestry Innovation Investment office is being opened in the United Kingdom, Stamer asked a straightforward question that gets to the root of the problem:  

“Can Ravi Parmar convince his boss that it’s essential to change how we access timber and fibre in this province? This government must simplify the process, not expand the red tape and hope that press releases and photo-ops can paper over the crisis they created.”

“We need to be able to harvest fire-damaged fibre immediately, not years down the road. We need BC Timber Sales (BCTS) to do their job and deliver twenty percent of the Annual Allowable Cut (AAC), not a fraction of that.”

“And finally, we need leadership from this NDP government, not finger-pointing and blaming everything on Donald Trump.”

The economic collapse of the forest industry, which has been underway for a decade, was predicted a long time ago.

“That is why mills are closing and towns and families are suffering. And why, at this rate, no one is going to have a job in this industry because forestry will have completely collapsed.”, Stamer concluded.  

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Comments

  1. Andrew HarvieOctober 31, 2025 at 11:16 AM

    Worked 48 years in the industry and never have I seen it so mismanaged,Nice to see someone like Ward who understands the forest industry and looks like a logger maybe Ebby and his band of merry man should listen to him

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousNovember 1, 2025 at 8:42 AM

    Toilet paper needs to be eliminated from the shelves and see how the priorities are set then.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Dave GorstNovember 1, 2025 at 3:03 PM

    When Gordon Campbell was Premier if I recall 120 to 130 mills shut down in BC.when he changed the forestry act.As I lost my job of 18 years.Its a boom bust economy in BC.It goes up and down with the market.

    ReplyDelete
  4. AnonymousNovember 1, 2025 at 4:48 PM

    Well said Ward.

    ReplyDelete

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