WARD STAMER -- The minister mentioned some success stories of early salvage. I have many that I can list to myself that are not successful in my own riding

PART 2 of Budget estimates for the Ministry of Forests – Wildfire Timber Salvage (from Tues March 10th, 2026)

 

WARD STAMER:  Let’s just move on a little bit from that to wildfire. We can talk about this. If we can, let’s ask a couple of questions around salvage.

We know full well that we’ve lost an incredible amount of fibre in the last five years, ten years, on wildfire. I’m looking at the information in front of me, when it talks about the minister’s…. It’s the manual for wildfire recovery.

In that document, it specifically says that we have specific timelines when it comes to salvaging fibre from a wildfire. There are implications, even in the minister’s numbers, saying that the expectation is only 10 percent… Ten percent is the number to recover wildfire fibre.

Now, there are many of us that would disagree with that number. Part of the reason, I believe, that we’re having that low number is it’s taking an incredibly long period of time to be able to access that fibre.

Can the minister answer a couple of very straightforward questions? What was the timeline in the last two years in the recovery of the wildfire volumes, and what was that number? What was the percentage of that number that was recovered?

Ravi Parmar:  .... coupled with the impacts of President Trump’s ongoing attacks on BC forestry, jobs within our sector have been hit hard. Our government has been taking action to push back and work to protect our forestry sector and the paycheques of those forestry workers as well. This includes cutting down on permitting red tape, bringing timelines down from approximately 40 days to 25 days, allowing more wood to be salvaged faster.

Wildfire salvage opportunity agreements have also made room for more meaningful First Nations participation in the forestry sector since their introduction in 2022. There have been 22 wildfire salvage opportunity agreements, or as we refer to them in the forest service with WSOAs, issued to First Nations and 12 associated tenures. Earlier last year we released the wildfire timber salvage planning and administration guidebook and strategy template which provides clear and consistent guidance on salvage.

Building on those wildfire salvage opportunity agreements we’ve also released some salvage planning tools to help accelerate the permitting process such as the wildfire timber salvage planning and administration guidebook which provides clear and consistent guidance on salvage processes and improved burn severity mapping and economical mapping by wildfire as well. Over the past few years there have been significant efforts made to shift the pulp industry’s perspective on the use of wood chips.

As an example in 2024 and 2025 pulp mills accepted over 1 million cubic metres of wood chips, up to 500,000 cubic metres in 2023 representing 7 percent of feedstock. I think the member just has to look to his neighbour’s, Kamloops Centre, backyard, if you’re looking for an example of us being able to move very quickly.

That’s the Mine Creek wildfire salvage. In the fall of 2025, early collaborative planning between Stuwix Resources, Coldwater Indian Band and BC Timber Sales paved the way for two of the fastest issued salvage cutting permits allowing the Coldwater Indian Band to recover timber from the 2025 Mine Creek wildfire and beginning salvage before the end of the year. That’s what we need to be moving towards.

As I shared with the member last year, one of the things that the team launched last year…. is a rapid ecological assessment team. This team goes in immediately after a fire occurs, understands the critical habitat, the burn severity, and also does work with our planning team and district offices to understand what mills can take.

It’s really important as we work to get the member a number…. I know the member already knows this from spending many years in the bush. There’s an economic cost to this as well when you’re looking at salvage. There are many situations in the northeast, as an example, where it just doesn’t make economic sense to go in and salvage that wood as well. That’s something we have to keep in mind when we look at the numbers, but it’s also the important work that we have to do to ensure that we are streamlining our processes and whenever possible bringing down costs while also making sure that we’re maintaining high civic culture practices when it comes to wildfire salvage.

Outstanding work that we’ve been doing with First Nations and certainly hope that as we prepare for the 2026 wildfire season and we use the Mine Creek wildfire as an example that there could be more Mine Creek wildfire examples of nations, industry coming together and again salvaging permits in the same year that the fire occurs.

WARD STAMER: There was a lot in that seven or eight minutes that the minister was answering the question on the wildfire. We went from the wildfire to FLPs then back to the wildfire, so I thank him for that.

There was a couple of very specific questions that I had. The minister mentioned about wildfire salvage and recovery. He talked about timelines. And again, I’m looking at the guide, and I would suggest that there is still some flexibility in those timelines in the salvage process.

The minister mentioned some success stories of early salvage. I have many that I can list to myself that are not successful in my own riding, where certain organizations were able to recover the fibre in a timely fashion and some that is still not.

I can certainly provide the pictures, and the areas, to show that not happening, and asking specific questions: “Why not?” Because when I look through roles and responsibilities, and it talks about who’s responsible for what after a wildfire, and the chain of command, it specifically says that tenure holders will have to look at ... when relevant, identify and coordinate with other tenure holders and mills on milling capacity of burnt wood. Obviously, that includes sawmills and pulp mills. Then it talks about requiring the FSPs, CPRPs, and submit permit applications to the district staff.

My question to the minister: ultimately, “Who is approving these cutting permits? Is it the licensees? Is it First Nations or is it the district staff that is authorizing these cutting permits?”

Ravi Parmar: The district manager.

WARD STAMER: I thank the minister for that.

Another question I had in the wildfire recovery…. Is there a way that I can get a breakdown when I asked specifically what the volumes were in the last couple of years? I’m looking at some of the information that was here on the wildfire in last year’s estimates book. Is there an opportunity that I can get the numbers of the amount of fibre that has been recovered in the last two operating years, 2024 and 2025, and the grades associated with that recovery?

Ravi Parmar: Yes, no problem. We’ll do our best to try to get it by the end of the day today, if not by the end of the week.

WARD STAMER: Thanks to the minister. That’s fine.