Frustrations are growing monthly with the British Columbia government’s continuing lack of action on the provincial forestry file. The issues are numerous, growing and urgent. The focus for several of them surround basic subjects like wood fibre availability, the high costs of operating and forest land use planning and priorities.

But the government’s head-in-the-sand lack of response is unlikely to change any time soon. Little of significance tends to happen during the government’s long summer adjournment. And in 2024, the season is anchored by a provincial election on October 19. The outcome is unknown at the time of writing but whatever the voters have decided, little in the way of policy changes can be anticipated until well into 2025.

Meanwhile, B.C.s forestry dilemma deepens. Sawmill and wood processing plants continue along the all too familiar path of production curtailments and permanent closure. Witness the latest with Canfor’s announcement to close sawmills in Fort St. John and Vanderhoof. More people are losing their jobs and communities throughout the province are withering economically as displaced workers are forced to leave their homes.

The Eby Government responds with another stirring performance in its series of fiddling while Rome burns.

“Access to economic fibre has fallen from 60 million cubic metres in 2018 to 35 million cubic metres of actual fibre in 2023, about 42 per cent below the allowable annual cut for the year,” Linda Coady reminded the government in May 2024. Coady is president and CEO of the B.C. Council of Forest Industries (COFI). “Each time a mill closes in B.C., there’s a substantial direct impact on employees and their families, with further consequences for local communities as well as across supply chains.”

A month later, Coady helped the government out, suggesting “a portfolio of changes” to help indicate a way forward for the provincial forest industry. The changes included fixing the current development process for permitting log harvesting on Crown land in B.C. “Delays in issuing harvesting permits can take three years to process,” she complained.

This in a sector struggling to regain its stature in an increasingly competitive global environment. B.C. is one of if not the highest cost lumber producer in North America. Coady suggested the government encourage regional planning to discuss and evaluate issues like old growth forests, biodiversity and cultural protection.

She said other moves the government could and should make include the support of forest management practices like thinning, prescribed burning and timber salvage. She supplied another important aid for the government to consider: “Develop a long term road map of B.C.’s forest sector. We need a strong, consistent and aligned message that B.C. has a plan for forestry.”

The B.C. government has received pleas for action from across the forestry sector. A recent meeting held in Prince George illustrates the point. It was co-hosted by George Lampreau, chief of the Simpcw First Nation near Barriere in the north Thompson region, and Dolleen Logan, chief of the Leidli T’enneh in Prince George. They didn’t mince words. They claimed the provincial government was killing the forest industry in B.C. by its delays in processing timber harvesting applications. The system is broken, they charged. The Prince George gathering was also attended by regional mayors and, significantly, by representatives from regional forest companies. The list included Canfor, West Fraser, Carrier Lumber, the Sinclar Group and Dunkley Lumber.

How long their respective operations can continue in their present form without government changes is moot.

The benefits of hindsight present a parallel situation from B.C.’s recent past. The circumstances are different, of course, but the situation illustrates how a government’s overriding priority can trump all others. For generations, the people of Haida Gwaii, off the northwest coast of B.C., witnessed a never ending flotilla of barges laden with island timber heading south for processing. Making matters worse, too often the value of the exported wood was unrecognized in its end uses. The island’s Haida residents gained little to no benefits from the harvesting practice. It made extensive used of off-island loggers operating from fly-in camps.

The Haida Nation decided to put an end to the practice once and for all.

The Haida used and further developed its influence in Victoria to effect changes in land use on the islands. New protected areas and no-go zones were strategically established. Their net effect was to make any large scale industrial forest operation unprofitable because of high transportation and other costs. The Haida tightened the legislative noose until they alone controlled what happens, where and how on the islands in terms of natural resource extraction on the islands. The Haida’s strategy was highly successful.

And there are no more barge loads of Haida logs heading south down B.C.’s northern coastline.

Large tracts of land have been withdrawn from the provincially owned forest land base in recent years at the request of First Nations. In other cases, land has been withdrawn for the establishment of parks and other protected areas. Large wildfires have also removed land on a temporary basis from potential log harvesting land inventories. Added together, these annexations are significant. And, as with the Haida, other First Nations in B.C. are equally determined to wrest back more control of traditional lands in their quests for self-determination.

Perhaps as a consequence, the NDP government is happy enough with a much- reduced role and influence for the forest industry in B.C. and its action—or lack of it—is simply an expression of that sentiment.

But still, it seems unlikely that a responsible government would permit such an action to continue considering the profound collateral harm that would reverberate as a consequence throughout the provincial economy.

Doesn’t it?