Those of us thinking of driving anywhere this summer -- that would be a significant portion within this city of 80,000 people -- and bracing ourselves for the cost, may want to turn our thoughts to anyone in this community connected with forest industry. [Read more...]

The provincial government is in a conflict of interest because a company managing public pension plans has a 25 per cent interest in a forestry firm involved in a land-claim dispute with the Hupacasath First Nation, band chief councillor Judith Sayers charged yesterday. [Read more...]

Forests Minister Rich Coleman continues to defend the B.C. government’s decision to end the requirement for forest companies to process Crown timber locally, as government and industry leaders grappled with the latest mill closures. [Read more...]

The message was simple: communities must be true partners in any decisions made on the future of forestry. The Working Roundtable on Forestry rolled into Quesnel Saturday, giving the city a chance to lobby change and influence government. [Read more...]

Enbridge Inc. has $15 billion in new projects under consideration as the company looks at expanding its network of pipelines to carry Alberta crude to the most lucrative export markets, the company's chief executive said today [Read more...]

This province has had since May 2005 to come up with a decent plan to address what was already a growing crisis in the coastal forest industry. [Read more...]

Hard-hit forest workers met with the B.C. government Monday against the backdrop of a crisis in the forest industry. Members of the United Steelworkers union asked Premier Gordon Campbell and Forests Minister Rich Coleman to help the beleaguered industry. But Coleman said he won't get directly involved in propping up companies. [Read more...]

VICTORIA – The deepening slump in the B.C. forest industry has prompted new calls for provincial government intervention, but Forests Minister Rich Coleman says it wouldn’t be appropriate to interfere with companies managing in the worst lumber market conditions in recent history. [Read more...]

Another 800 mill workers in B.C. are about to lose their jobs as two more pulp mills — in Mackenzie in the Central Interior and Nanaimo on Vancouver Island — are shut down. [Read more...]

Opposition MLAs are calling on the B.C. government to stop an effort to export logs supplying a Surrey sawmill. Surrey-Newton MLA Harry Bains asked Forests Minister Rich Coleman Thursday about a letter to government officials from MacKenzie Sawmill Ltd. asking them to deny an application to export logs. In the letter, MacKenzie president Rob Sohi said his mill is one of a few independent B.C. mills left operating, employing 110 workers, and it is having difficulty obtaining the large logs it needs. [Read more...]

Forestry Roundtable: It’s an exclusive party, and you can’t come. So say Gordon Campbell, Rich Coleman and Pat Bell. This Forestry Roundtable has been carefully crafted to exclude thousands of British Columbians whose family futures depend on our forests. Why does this government want to hold a closed-door meeting on the future of our forests? Pat Bell says the doors should be closed because “some players are more comfortable having an open discussion in a closed-door session.” [Read more...]

A shift in thinking will help the forest sector survive in B.C., says Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman, who met Saturday with companies, First Nations and industry associations during a forestry roundtable session at the Civic Centre. [Read more...]

VICTORIA - Another string of closures and layoffs in the forest industry, another bad week in the legislature for Forests Minister Rich Coleman. [Read more...]

The following is a snapshot of activity in the B.C. Legislature this week, with excerpts from "blues," the first draft of Hansard, the official record of all that is said on the floor of the House. [Read more...]

The federal Conservatives have quietly killed an access to information registry used by journalists, experts and the public that users say helped hold the government accountable [Read more...]

A pipeline rupture that sent thousands of litres of crude oil flowing into the Lesser Slave River on Wednesday has been cleaned up quickly, Alberta's petroleum regulator reports. [Read more...]

Northwest British Columbians are concerned about Shell¹s plans to drill 14 new gas wells at the headwaters of our three most important salmon rivers (the Skeena, the Stikine and the Nass) according to a poll commissioned by NDP MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley) [Read more...]

Nature Conservancy's 'partnership' with oil giant Shell rankles donor. [Read more...]

The Campbell government has abandoned B.C.’s forest industry and forest-dependent communities in their hour of need, NDP Leader Carole James said Wednesday. [Read more...]

The deepening slump in the B.C. forest industry has prompted new calls for provincial government intervention, but Forests Minister Rich Coleman says it wouldn't be appropriate to interfere with companies managing in the worst lumber market conditions in recent history. [Read more...]

BRITISH COLUMBIA - The Coast's largest forest company, Western Forest Products is said today it is shutting down most of its logging operations, laying off more than 800 loggers and contractors as demand for wood products continues to tumble world-wide. [Read more...]

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. [Read more...]

Forest Minister Rich Coleman is among those waiting for more details of a feasibility study showing TimberWest's Elk Falls sawmill could be a viable operation in other hands. [Read more...]

Andre Lafleche will tell you he's not in the garbage business. Rather, he manages one of society's most abundant untapped resources. [Read more...]

The news doesn't get any better for B.C.'s beleaguered coastal forest industry. Friday marked another grim day, as the Western Forest Products sawmill in Ladysmith ran its last shift. The mill's large log line had previously shut down on Nov. 30, resulting in 110 workers receiving pink slips. [Read more...]

The United Steelworkers Union, representing most forest workers in the province, says Coleman should quit for failing to help the forest industry, which is struggling under the weight of a high dollar and depressed lumber markets. [Read more...]

The British Columbia government missed an opportunity to address province-wide concerns about coalbed methane (CBM) in the recently announced Oil and Gas Activities Act. The Act does little to fix weak points in the province�s approach to coalbed methane development, according to preliminary analysis by the Pembina Institute [Read more...]

The Capital Regional District stuck to its guns and enacted six controversial bylaws Wednesday afternoon, dramatically increasing lot sizes on the southwest corner of Vancouver Island. The audience, made up of residents of Otter Point, Shirley and Jordan River and environmental groups, broke out in applause after the bylaws whipped through the vote with no debate. [Read more...]

Stock in Nexen Inc. [NXY-T] hit an all-time high Wednesday, as the firm unveiled a new resource in northeast British Columbia that it says could become one of the largest unconventional natural gas fields in North America [Read more...]

An ecologically rich underwater volcanic mountain west of the Queen Charlotte Islands was designated a marine protected area yesterday by the federal government. [Read more...]

BRITISH COLUMBIA - Western Forest Products says it is shutting down its Ladysmith sawmill indefinitely Friday, laying off 40 workers and curtailing a vital supply of wood chips to nearby pulp and paper mills. [Read more...]

An ambitious vision of Jordan River as a bustling town, with 10,000 residents moving in over the next 20 years, was unveiled yesterday by developer Ender Ilkay in a last-ditch attempt to delay bylaws which could scuttle his plans. [Read more...]

Mapping the outer limits of Canada's continental shelves in the Arctic is essential in order to allow the country to control oil and mineral exploration in a responsible way, Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn said Friday. [Read more...]

Vancouver developer Ender Ilkay released rough plans on April 18 for the 2,550 hectares of land that have been at the centre of a land use controversy on southern Vancouver Island. [Read more...]

The provincial government and Community Services Minister Ida Chong have looked after the interests of Western Forest Products and large landowners along the Island's southwest coast over the last 14 months. But they have ignored the concerns and interests of Capital Regional District residents. Government has enriched the forest company's shareholders while obtaining no public benefit. It has sabotaged community-based regional planning, damaging the interests of south Islanders. [Read more...]

Native leaders are warning the 2010 Winter Olympics will be marked by bridge blockades, airport disruptions and Internet campaigns if they don't see significant progress on aboriginal poverty and land claims by the time the world turns its attention to the Vancouver-area Games [Read more...]

Some of the biggest names in B.C.’s forest industry will be in Port Alberni Saturday along with the Minister of Forests Rich Coleman. [Read more...]

On April 14 some 50 protesters gathered outside cabinet minister Ida Chong's community office in Victoria's Oak Bay neighbourhood. They included environmental icon Vicky Husband, the Sea-to-Sea Greenbelt Society's Ray Zimmermann and representatives of the Dogwood Initiative, who delivered Chong a giant pen [Read more...]

Starting Sept. 5, ultra-low-flow toilets and other water-saving plumbing fixtures will be mandatory in all new construction in B.C. and there will be new insulation requirements under the B.C. Building Code. [Read more...]

Provincial decisions are undermining democracy and land use decisions on southern Vancouver Island, says a letter sent yesterday by the University of Victoria Environmental Law Clinic to auditor general John Doyle. [Read more...]