This page contains annotated news stories and press releases with commentary about land reform and the democratic process in British Columbia. Our comments are shown in red.
Coleman repeatedly states that there is nothing he can do about the loss of jobs, and land in the forest industry- yet the decisions he does make clearly support logging corporations and not forest workers or citizens. Coleman continues to make decisions that treat public land, or publicly managed lands (as in Tree Farm Licenses) as private.
This absolute crisis in the forest industry could be an absolute opportunity if
Coleman was brave enough to stand up for forest workers, ban raw log exports, and focus on domestic market solutions. He is
obviously not the person for the job. He should resign immediately!
Coleman should resign
Apr 29, 2008http://www.bclocalnews.com/bc_cariboo/williamslaketribune
Steelworkers have called on forest minister Rich Coleman to resign after his repeated claims there’s nothing the government can do to turn things around in B.C.’s forest industry.
Most recently, Coleman told the BC Forest Roundtable that: “There’s nothing a ministry can do to change a marketplace.” He says the roundtable should simply cut regulations -- a solution that might please forest companies but represents the attitude that helped launch the industry on its current downward spiral.
That statement was the last straw, especially after Coleman’s repeated statements that he doesn’t intend to do anything about the crisis. His days as minister have also been marked by frequent delays and lack of follow-through on promises. Then came his bland assertion that as forest minister “my hands are tied” with respect to forest-tenure transfers that sealed the fate of Weyerhaeuser’s Kamloops sawmill.
Coleman forgot to say that his hands were tied by his own Liberal government. While past forest ministers could review transfers of publicly-owned timber to uphold the public interest, Coleman was forced by Liberal legislative changes in 2003 to simply sit and watch as Weyco handed off its timber licenses to Interfor and WestFraser, neither of whom were prepared to run the sawmill. Past ministers could have called in the Jobs Protection Commissioner or ordered a mill-closure review; the Gordon Campbell government stripped him of those powers, too.
What’s at issue here is who owns BC forests and who should benefit from them. Over 95 per cent of the province’s timberlands are publicly owned. Forest licenses are supposed to serve the public good. Yet the Campbell Liberals allow companies to treat them like private property. They severed the links between our forests and public-policy objectives like job creation, workplace safety or community stability; companies can also high-grade the best timber while leaving huge numbers of usable logs to rot.
That helps explain the loss of 20,000 jobs and at least 46 wood-processing operation closures since Campbell was elected. It also explains why log exports have almost doubled to over 5 million cubic meters a year since 2001; they’ve risen over 10 times since 1997. And despite government and corporate denials, there is a direct relationship between log exports, job loss and mill closures.
Coleman’s claim that government can’t shape markets is also wrong. His government has already shifted markets – in the wrong direction. Even a government-commissioned report last year said that far from improving things, Campbell-government policies have often made them worse.
The Campbell government’s so-called Forest Revitalization Plan lets companies contract out work, transfer licenses like bingo chips and close mills when and where they please. That certainly affects the market. So does Campbell’s support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s reckless lumber deal with US President George Bush: it encourages log exports by putting a 15-percent tax on Canadian lumber manufacturers but allowing raw logs to enter the US duty free. And the so-called “surge mechanism” discourages investment in BC mills; it’s really a penalty for efficiency. The deal encourages firms to avoid the tax and beat the surge mechanism by investing in the US. In other words, if the industry is in a six-foot hole, three feet were dug in Ottawa and Victoria.
Steelworkers even tried to help Coleman recently: we released a 10-point plan that would bring immediate relief to our industry by restoring the link between harvesting and manufacturing, changing the timber-taxation regime to encourage BC manufacturing, making our workplaces safer, beginning an accelerated reforestation program, training a future generation of forest and woodworkers and ending the current tragic levels of waste.
Coleman should step down. He offers nothing to British Columbians who know that our forests and our forest industry are vital to our future. He offers no hope to people who have lost their jobs. He’s throwing up his hands when he should be rolling up his sleeves -- and that’s simply not good enough.
Bob Matters is chair of the United Steelworkers Wood Council.
Most recently, Coleman told the BC Forest Roundtable that: “There’s nothing a ministry can do to change a marketplace.” He says the roundtable should simply cut regulations -- a solution that might please forest companies but represents the attitude that helped launch the industry on its current downward spiral.
That statement was the last straw, especially after Coleman’s repeated statements that he doesn’t intend to do anything about the crisis. His days as minister have also been marked by frequent delays and lack of follow-through on promises. Then came his bland assertion that as forest minister “my hands are tied” with respect to forest-tenure transfers that sealed the fate of Weyerhaeuser’s Kamloops sawmill.
Coleman forgot to say that his hands were tied by his own Liberal government. While past forest ministers could review transfers of publicly-owned timber to uphold the public interest, Coleman was forced by Liberal legislative changes in 2003 to simply sit and watch as Weyco handed off its timber licenses to Interfor and WestFraser, neither of whom were prepared to run the sawmill. Past ministers could have called in the Jobs Protection Commissioner or ordered a mill-closure review; the Gordon Campbell government stripped him of those powers, too.
What’s at issue here is who owns BC forests and who should benefit from them. Over 95 per cent of the province’s timberlands are publicly owned. Forest licenses are supposed to serve the public good. Yet the Campbell Liberals allow companies to treat them like private property. They severed the links between our forests and public-policy objectives like job creation, workplace safety or community stability; companies can also high-grade the best timber while leaving huge numbers of usable logs to rot.
That helps explain the loss of 20,000 jobs and at least 46 wood-processing operation closures since Campbell was elected. It also explains why log exports have almost doubled to over 5 million cubic meters a year since 2001; they’ve risen over 10 times since 1997. And despite government and corporate denials, there is a direct relationship between log exports, job loss and mill closures.
Coleman’s claim that government can’t shape markets is also wrong. His government has already shifted markets – in the wrong direction. Even a government-commissioned report last year said that far from improving things, Campbell-government policies have often made them worse.
The Campbell government’s so-called Forest Revitalization Plan lets companies contract out work, transfer licenses like bingo chips and close mills when and where they please. That certainly affects the market. So does Campbell’s support for Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s reckless lumber deal with US President George Bush: it encourages log exports by putting a 15-percent tax on Canadian lumber manufacturers but allowing raw logs to enter the US duty free. And the so-called “surge mechanism” discourages investment in BC mills; it’s really a penalty for efficiency. The deal encourages firms to avoid the tax and beat the surge mechanism by investing in the US. In other words, if the industry is in a six-foot hole, three feet were dug in Ottawa and Victoria.
Steelworkers even tried to help Coleman recently: we released a 10-point plan that would bring immediate relief to our industry by restoring the link between harvesting and manufacturing, changing the timber-taxation regime to encourage BC manufacturing, making our workplaces safer, beginning an accelerated reforestation program, training a future generation of forest and woodworkers and ending the current tragic levels of waste.
Coleman should step down. He offers nothing to British Columbians who know that our forests and our forest industry are vital to our future. He offers no hope to people who have lost their jobs. He’s throwing up his hands when he should be rolling up his sleeves -- and that’s simply not good enough.
Bob Matters is chair of the United Steelworkers Wood Council.
