BC’s Family-Owned Value-Added Forest Businesses Already Affected by Deferrals of Ancient Tree Logging

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The provincial government’s plan to defer logging a third of its primary forests for two years is causing immediate damage to hundreds of value-added forestry companies such as Vancouver Specialty Cedar Products.

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“We were surprised by this,” said 32-year-old Carmen Backs, who has worked for her father’s Maple Ridge company since she was 13. “From a business point of view, it is scary that the government is making decisions without consulting. or review properly ”.

Tuesday’s announcement to halt logging in an area 226 times the size of the city of Vancouver, subject to First Nations approval, came as a shock to Backs.

She believes the government “stacked the deck” by appointing environmentalists to the technical panel that recommended the postponements.

“They are not doing it the right way,” he said. “They didn’t do their due diligence. It seems they did this to get votes. It feels very political, given the attention to the protests in Fairy Creek, but I think they found a solution to a problem by creating a bigger problem. “

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The province’s decision to immediately end sales of all old logs through its BC Timber Sales agency means that value-added manufacturers like Vancouver Specialty are separated from the type of wood they need to make cedar panels, siding. and terraces that are sold throughout the territory. world.

Backs said the postponement of 26,000 square kilometers of primary forest will have a much greater effect on companies like his than on large multinational industrial logging corporations.

“The big companies that have tree growing licenses remain and are not affected by these decisions. Those companies will go ahead, they will secure their own supply and they don’t make all the value-added products, ”Backs said. “Value-added manufacturing from Interfor and Western Forest Products is across the border in the US Much of the value added has been transferred across the border.”

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Forestry Minister Katrine Conroy was not available Wednesday to respond to concerns. However, he has said that one of the objectives of the transformation of the sector is to promote a manufacturing with more added value.

But the executive director of the BC Independent Wood Processors Association, Brian Menzies, said the government has done the opposite.

“This decision is completely contrary to the British Columbia government’s goal of transitioning the industry from high volume to high value,” Menzies said. “Our wood supply has been cut off immediately. Lowering the hammer in one day is hitting little people like us. “

Menzies predicts that half of the 70 small manufacturers in his group that are based in the Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and Vancouver Island will be out of service within two years.

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Conroy has promised new programs to help businesses and communities in transition, but Menzies said his sector is an afterthought. “Government personnel have told us that they understand the impacts but have no plans to mitigate them,” he said.

“If we had any warning that the offer is going to change, we could look for other products. We may be able to use hemlock, which is abundant, but it will take some innovation to be able to use it in remanufactured products. Small businesses are good at innovating, but we need time to do it. “

Backs believes that the products that will replace theirs will do more harm to the environment.

“Limitations in the supply of wood will come quickly, but because of the same demand, the price will go up and the competition to buy limited fiber will become more intense,” Back said. “And the finished product we make will be priced off the market, so customers will buy lower-cost products made from plastics made from petroleum – plastic siding, plastic fascia, plastic pallet, which horrifies me.”