A log boom in Parson's Channel along the Fraser River February 9, 2011.
The B.C. government is reviewing its raw log exports policy, with a firm commitment Friday that it will not shut the doors on the controversial business.
"I can assure you that on log exports, my government is taking a common-sense approach," Premier Christy Clark told the truck logging industry's annual conference on Friday.
Ms. Clark told the industry conference in Victoria that her goal is to give the forest industry a "government that says 'yes'" when it comes to regulation.
Since 2005, the province has been exporting an average of 3.3-million cubic metres worth of unprocessed logs each year. Last year, it hit that mark by August, marking significant growth in exports of forest products to Asia.
David Lewis, executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, said the review may not lead to any changes in the current policy but any curtailment of exports will hurt jobs.
"In the past year log exports have been a huge benefit to the province," he said. "The majority of our coastal timber is uneconomic to harvest if we are selling it to domestic buyers."
In her speech, Ms. Clark promised a sectoral strategy to protect jobs in the hard-hit coastal forest industry, but she was quick to segue into a partisan attack, saying the opposition B.C. New Democratic Party wants to ban exports outright and kill jobs.
Relying on a comment made by NDP leader Adrian Dix last April during a radio interview, Ms. Clark told the conference the NDP would put thousands of people out of work.
"Yes, we would all like to get more value out of B.C. wood. But we are not going to get there by supporting Adrian Dix's latest position on log exports. We are not going to get there by banning them," she said. "Why does Adrian Dix seem so intent on throwing people out of work?"
The opposition was quick to insist that Ms. Clark was exaggerating their policy, which calls for severe restrictions but not an outright ban.
"We've not called for a ban on raw log exports," NDP forestry critic Bill Routley told reporters. "This premier continues the decade of deceit. Our leader has never talked about an outright ban, he's talked about actions to ensure that B.C. logs create B.C. jobs."
The NDP policy does call for a curtailment of shipping unprocessed logs out of province. But in a CBC radio interview last spring when Mr. Dix was asked if he would ban raw log exports, he replied: "I would, and I made very specific proposals ...to initially impose taxes and increase fees on logs leaving the province to give our domestic manufacturers an opportunity to get access to wood again."
Justine Hunter