03) B.C. LIBERALS PLAN MAJOR GIVEAWAY TO FOREST CORPORATIONS

PV Vancouver Bureau

     A prominent B.C. resource analyst says that Christy Clark's Liberals plan to use the upcoming short session of the Legislature to make fundamental changes to provincial forestry policies.

     Writing in The Province newspaper, Ben Parfitt says the government plans to introduce a two‑paragraph bill which would allow the cabinet to grant forest companies de facto private control over public forestlands.

     Currently, private companies enjoy rights to log set volumes of trees on public forestlands. The change would give companies dramatically expanded powers over "vast semi‑private fiefdoms."

     The proposed new bill is expected as the government faces mounting criticism over a forest‑health crisis, due to decades of over‑cutting and an unprecedented mountain pine beetle attack. Numerous sawmills have closed, creating hardships for many coastal, interior and northern communities. Major sawmills in Burns Lake and Prince George have been shut down by explosions and deadly fires.

     Now. leaked documents indicate that the province is revisiting a controversial "rollover" idea first raised 25 years ago by the Socred government.

     At the time, the NDP opposition called the plan "privatization on a massive scale" and the biggest giveaway in the history of BC. Faced with a storm of protests, the plan was dropped.

     Parfitt writes that the 1980s policy is the one now being contemplated by the government. That was the message from Minister of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Steve Thomson, in a letter last September to Steve Zika, CEO of Hampton Affiliates, which owns the destroyed Burns Lake mill.

     If the new legislation passes, the provincial cabinet could grant forest companies the rights to roll over volume‑based forest licences into area‑based Tree Farm Licences, or TFLs.

     TFLs give corporations secure rights of access to publicly owned trees. The new legislation would massively expand Tree Farm Licenses, far beyond the current limited numbers.

     TFL lands still remain publicly owned, and the government still collects timber‑cutting ("stumpage") fees from the logging companies. But the TFL rules make it very difficult for the province to take back control of such lands without expensive compensation payouts.

     The government may argue that granting Hampton a TFL would give the company the assurance it needs to build a new mill in Burns Lake. But this move opens the door to a rapid expansion of corporate power over public forestlands. Major forest companies like Canfor, West Fraser and Tolko could gain unprecedented control, without having to make any investments along the lines of what Hampton proposes.

     For decades, forest companies have claimed that TFLs provide the security they need to invest in "renewing" forests. But the record shows that companies have historically made the minimal reforestation investments required by law, regardless of licensing arrangements.

     Worse, writes Parfitt, "TFLs become tradable or sellable assets. If the right corporate suitor comes along, say a pension fund that has zero interest in maintaining sawmills, let alone building desperately needed value‑added facilities like furniture plants, so be it."

     Yet this change could be legislated with no chance for any public response, warns Parfitt, who is a resource‑policy analyst with the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives. He urges the Liberals to delay implementation to give the public time to digest the implications. Or, he suggests, the NDP Opposition could signal that the bill would be immediately repealed if it becomes the government this spring.

     Communist Party of BC candidates in the May 14 election will be campaigning for major changes to provincial forest policy, including a ban on job-killing exports of raw logs, and repeal of the Liberal plans for expansion of TFLs.

(The following articles are from the February 15-28, 2013, issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)