“4.5 million hectares of forest lands have burned since 2023, and the best they can do is point to a 90-hectare block being salvaged?” ~~ Ward Stamer, Kamloops-North Thompson MLA

Today, BC NDP forest Minister Ravi Parmar made this pronouncement; ‘Removing red tape has sped up permitting, allowing for more wood to be salvaged, quicker’.

4.5 million hectares of forest lands have burned since 2023, and the best they can do is point to a 90-hectare block?  ~~ BC Conservative Forests Critic Ward Stamer

While acknowledging the NDP government has recognized improvements were needed in permitting and accessing burnt fibre in a timely fashion, the reality is, they are barely making a dent in the problem. 

This government's recognition that only seven percent of pulp mill fibre came from burnt timber in 2024-25, quite simply put, is a failure. And the recent announcement, just three weeks ago, that the Crofton Pulp Mill would be permanently closing, is proof of that.    

Instead of Premier David Eby’s government addressing core issues being faced by British Columbia’s forest industry, they are doing little more than manipulating the facts, as they try to put lipstick on a pig.

Certainty of supply of wood fibre, less red tape and permitting duplication, the revamping of our stumpage system, and the reduction in the overall costs associated with our forest industry IS what’s needed. 

What do we get instead? A government that talks about wildfire salvage from a 90-hectare area which burned in the 2025 Mill Creek wildfire, as if that’s an accomplishment to be proud of.

4.5 million hectares of forest lands have burned since 2023, and the best they can do is point to a 90-hectare block?  

The government has stated they are on target to salvage up to 7% of what’s burned.  Where is the rest?  What about the remaining 93%?  Is it ever going to be salvaged?

Over and over again, the BC forest industry has asked for certainty of fibre supply, and that’s not happening.

To be quite honest, NDP Forest Minister Ravi Parmar has to stop blaming everything on US lumber tariffs because alarm bells were ringing long before new tariffs were imposed.
 
Until that happens forestry families like those in 100 Mile House, Crofton, Prince George, Bear Lake, and Ft. St. John, where mills have closed under Parmar’s watch, will continue to worry if the next mill closure will happen in their community.