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The B.C. Liberal government has introduced Bill 8 that, if passed, would allow forest corporations to convert their volume-based licenses to area-based licenses (TFLs) without adequate public consultation. This plan needs widespread opposition. Here is an explanation about the proposed legislation from Anthony Britneff, a retired forester who was a senior professional with the B.C. forest service…
…For example, a corporation may apply to the government for a TFL, notify (not consult with) the public asking for feedback within a short period of time, and, then, the corporation reports back to government telling it what it heard from the public.
This legislation is TFL-rollover for the benefit of corporations at the expense of First Nations and communities at the discretion of Cabinet with no quid pro quo for the public (e.g., 30% takeback of volume; upgrade to existing mills, building of a new mill, etc)). Also there is no requirement that timber from the TFL be tied to and directed to local mills for local employment. First Nations and communities do not have sufficient licences to rollover to TFLs.
Having cut back budgets by 52% for forests, parks and environment and consequently having rendered dysfunctional the management of renewable resources, this government now implements the final cut and privatizes the forests under the guise of area-based management, which they claim is better than volume-based management.
I remember when the Forest Industry was a part of our cultural identity here in BC. It was in my hometown. There was a used logging truck in my front yard, growing up. My brothers first job was at a mill. Five generations of my family worked the coastal forests. All Sooke Days celebrated Logger Sports and the centre of town featured a carved High Rigger atop of a spar tree. Then that all dried up and blew away, like some forgotten dream as the industry amalgamated into these multinationals. Timberwest. Island Timberlands (a subsidiary of Brookfield Asset Management, with head offices in Toronto and New York, pending a sale of shares to China Investment Corporation. Remember Brascan? Same people. BAM.
This industry has always been corrupt. One could argue that this Country has always been corrupt. Based on the British Colonization Model. From the nation building exercise that was the Railroad, those Right of Ways afforded them were the basis of our downfall. The lands afforded to these companies were a part of the public trust. Later to be privatised to Forest Companies. Gradually and with stealth, the social contract of community jobs and benefits was eroded. Clauses got erased. Mills closed and jobs were replaced by fellerbunchers and contractors and logs de-graded from a 95 year cycle down to a 35 year cycle. Regulation has been strangled with regards to replanting and retention and regeneration, the Forest Service defunded to the point of redundancy. Then they locked us out of the woods. Built gates and decommissioned roads. They sold out our rights with NAFTA and shipped our raw logs to China.
Coastal temperate species like red cedar, fir, hemlock and spruce count their lifecycles in the hundreds, even thousands of years. Governments, sadly, seem to only be able to count in 4 year cycles.
How are we going to explain this to our great grandchildren?
Update: Edited for a factual correction. I originally wrote that Sinopec wanted to buy into Island Timberlands. As was pointed out in the comments, it was actually China Investment Corporation, a State owned Hedge Fund. Also edited for spelling.
I guess that first you tell your grandchildren what happened
and then you move on to explaining how and why it happened.
British Columbia is in many ways a microcosm of what’s happened to Canada.
Though the staggering natural diversity, biosystems, geography of BC
is probably only matched by Washington State and Oregon..
or certain South American countries
The temperate marine archipelagoes are being designated
by those noted marine biological scientists Stephen Harper, Joe Oliver & Peter Kent
as watery runways for Chinese VLCC dilbit tankers and LNG supertankers
Christy Clark has zero say in the matter.. and never will.. she’s political decor
They – Stephen and the Petroleum Club ..
are about to ratify their secretly devised 30 year FIPA deal with China re the tar sands
and just announced a 25 year deal re liquid natural gas (LNG) exports out of Kitimaat
The log deal went down years ago .. and just look at all those Canadian jobs
and how the forest and logging and shipping to China is working out
I’m sad just thinking of how the marine ecosystem of coastal BC
and all its creatures is being sacrificed as some sort of historic economic legacy experiment
by a pudgy carpet bagger pretender from Toronto, that moved to Alberta
and wants to screw British Columbia and all of Canada to get his shiny pipelines
Stephen Harper – the murderer of orca, the great whales, the salmon
the sea otter, dolphins, seals, the scallop, the urchin, the eagle, the bear and wolf
The man who would consume the boreal forest and all its creatures
and bequeath us the tailings ponds and frack waters
Somebody please call Paul Watson .. to save us from the enemy within us
That enemy’s name is – The Harper Government – The Conservative Party of Canada
If I’m not mistake we elected them – to do this to us
Kim Reply:
February 27th, 2013 at 1:08 PM
BC is definately a microcosm of the situation in Canada. The whole thing was tested here, during the decade of Gordon Campbell’s brand of Casino Capitalism. We need a Charbonneau Commission here in the worst way!
In my opinion, this Corporate takeover is very much a global endgame that goes way beyond Canada’s borders. One that will take a global revolution to suppress.
Brascan eh? Oye!
I’m curious about your reference to a pending sale of Island Timberlands? Is this what you are referring to?
http://www.vancouversun.com/business/Chinese+sovereign+wealth+fund+eyes+Vancouver+Island+timberlands/7525440/story.html
Kim Reply:
February 27th, 2013 at 12:59 PM
Yes,Okie, that’s it. I’ll have to do an edit. Thanks for pointing that out. It’s China Investment Corporation, not Sinopec, as I originally wrote.
Both Harper, his so called Conservatives and, the Campbell/Clark BC Liberals are Traitors in this land. No Canadian has to obey Traitors. We would be guilty of Treason, if we did so.
We all know, Campbell twice lied and cheated to win his elections, as did Harper. They have no right to even live in this country, let alone govern.
Harper and Christy had better, bring over their entire Communist China army. We Canadians have had enough of Harper and the BC Liberals treachery. We have drawn the line and, extreme disobedience will begin. All of those monsters, must be driven out of our country. We fully expect the BC Liberals and Harper to go right on, lying and cheating.
Harper’s E.I. Brown Shirts had better not, bang on the doors of the BC people. 300 BC miners applied for the 200 BC mining jobs, Harper and Christy gave Red China. Enough is enough people.
Welcome. I’m always drawn to items related to Brookfield and it’s creators, as it’s a most intriguing topic, beginning with their initial rise to prominence.
Your post sent me on a journey down memory lane and with the internet, there’s such a wide variety of things that come up when you go looking. After reading items where the names of some of Canada’s elites are mentioned in concert with folks like Lucky Luciano, I came across something that’s supposed to be a Draft Submitted to the RCMP-CSIS Joint Review Committee dated 24 June 1997. The topic is Chinese Intelligence Services and Triads Financial Links in Canada.
Seems a perfect match up for the founding family of Brookfield / Brascan.
In the report it says “At the moment, we estimate that over 200 Canadian companies are under the direct or indirect control of China.”
One of the main points is that China has a definite strategy to infiltrate Canadian business interests and to acquire as much as possible outright, to further the goal of extending their financial and political influence in Canada. Now it’s important to consider that number was from 1997, long before the Chinese government was any real issue in the minds of sleepy Canucks.
Has this country always been corrupt? I suppose it depends who you ask and how they define corrupt.
Okie, “Has this country always been corrupt? I suppose it depends who you ask and how they define corrupt.”
Indeed.
“They sold out our rights with NAFTA and shipped our raw logs to China.”
Hell, they’ve even disassembled many of the mills and shipped them to China, to make it even easier for slave Chinese labor to process our fibre!