“I don’t think we should be frightened by a handful of people who believe they’re morally superior to the rest of us,” Premier John Horgan said.
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Premier Horgan told BC’s key forestry firms that he’s heard their complaints about the high costs of accessing timber, but his government will be staying the course on old-growth forest protection and modernizing policy in line with reconciliation with First Nations.
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“I don’t want to appear to be tone deaf on these questions, I know that we’re a high-cost jurisdiction,” Horgan said to a crowd of more than 750 at the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) convention in Vancouver , “but we’re also an extraordinary jurisdiction,” with forests, workers and communities “that are profoundly important to the rest of the world.”
And the premier took note of the near-record profits that the major lumber producers are racking up, which now makes the perfect “transitional moment in British Columbia to build the forest industry that we all want to see.”
Doing that, however, will mean addressing forest health, which the province has been focusing on in modernizing policy to prioritize ecosystem management, which Horgan encouraged industry players to continue working with government on.
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“I don’t think we should be frightened by a handful of people who believe they’re morally superior to the rest of us,” Horgan said, referring to old-growth protests, including a small action outside the JW Marriott Hotel attached to the Park Casino conference centre.
Three Save Old Growth protesters glued and chained themselves to doors, which went mostly unnoticed on the conference floor and had been removed by security before Horgan arrived.
However, Horgan said British Columbians do care deeply about protecting their forests, even if “they’re not all engaging in civil disobedience.”
And he gave no sign of backing down from implementing his government’s commissioned old-growth review, which has removed some 1.7 million hectares of forests out of contention for harvesting in temporary deferrals.
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“We need to acknowledge that, we need to embrace that,” Horgan added, and not “apologetically.”
“We want a working forest, we want areas where people can come in and marvel at the majesty, but we need to do it with our eyes wide open,” Horgan said.
The “best way forward,” he added, will be in co-operation with First Nations and with “workers that understand we’re going through this together.”
Horgan’s speech capped off the day-and-half-long event, where the most powerful executives in BC’s industry hoped to hear signs that their concerns about maintaining reliable access to timber have been heard.
The premier didn’t address that topic directly, but COFI chairman Don Kayne said delegates were “encouraged for sure, with the comments that he made.”
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“We support collaboration and we have all along,” added Kayne, who is CEO of Canfor Corp., BC’s biggest forestry firm. “Clearly he spoke about some of the challenges that we have, but we’ve always had challenges in this industry. The key is going to be that we all recognize we’ve all got a part to play in the solution.”
On access to timber, Kayne said executives understand BC’s timber inventory is “evolving.”
“We all know that we’ve been dealing with a shrinking (timber harvest) for a number of years because of the (mountain pine) beetle, because of wildfires, because of floods and all those combined,” Kayne said. “It’s a complex issue and I think over time here, we’ll understand more.”
COFI CEO Susan Yurkovich closed out the convention for the last time, having announced her resignation to the board after seven years in the position during tumultuous times for the industry.
