New premier Christy Clark should take the advice of industry stakeholders and ensure forestry is restored to a stand-alone ministry, say the New Democrats.

One of the last decisions of out-going Premier Gordon Campbell was to remove some aspects of the forest ministry as part of the creation of the natural resource operations ministry and then add mining to the forestry portfolio. New Democrat forest critic Norm Macdonald said he hopes the new premier will correct this mistake when she unveils her new cabinet Monday.

“Over the past 10 years, forestry has been devastated under the B.C. Liberals,” said Macdonald. “The problems stem from changes to the Forests Act in 2003, when Christy Clark was sitting at the cabinet table and have continued to this day.

“The creation of the natural resource operations ministry, combined with the merging of the forestry and mining ministries is just the latest example of that poor policy.

“What’s worrisome is that Ms. Clark said virtually nothing about forestry during the leadership campaign. People in forest-dependent communities are looking for real change, but it looks like Ms. Clark only offers more of the same bad policies.”

The tangible results of the inattention to forestry have been devastating to the present and the future of the industry, Macdonald said.

“We’ve seen dramatic decreases in employment as mills have failed in the past four years,” said Macdonald. “And in the past few months, respected, independent experts have described the results of the policies of the B.C. Liberals.

“Ben Parfitt’s report in December showed how the devastation in the B.C. Forest Service has significantly increased the risk of abuses of forest rules. And in January, retired forester Anthony Britneff released information showing that the amount of land not sufficiently restocked is more than nine million hectares – three times the size of Vancouver Island.

“It’s long past time for the B.C. Liberals to put concerted efforts into ensuring that forestry has a long, healthy future. Leaving forestry concerns as a bit part in a so-called super ministry will have the opposite effect.”

Macdonald said that industry stakeholders have expressed serious concerns about the merged ministry. Even former B.C. Liberal MLA Bill Bennett criticized the move.

“George Abbott said Christy Clark doesn’t understand rural B.C.,” said Macdonald. “If the B.C. Liberals are really interested in fostering a healthy economic future for rural B.C., they will reverse course and make forestry a priority once again.”

B.C.’s New Democrats are working on solutions to ensure that natural resources are used effectively to create jobs in British Columbia, while still respecting First Nations, environmental and local needs.

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