Job protection means status quo for B.C.’s private forestland: Parmar

Local governments are frustrated after finally receiving a long-awaited answer to when legislative changes are coming to the law governing how some forest lands are managed in B.C. The answer: with the trade war targeting B.C. lumber, the priority is protecting forestry jobs. In short, after years of fighting, change is not coming. The 2003 Private Managed Forest Land (PMFL) Act puts no limit on the volume of timber that can be harvested, contrary to logging on Crown land. It’s administered by the Private Managed Forest Council, two of the five members of which have active vested interest in PMFLs. “It is the ultimate fox looking after the chicken coop kind of scenario,” said Dave Weaver, a retired professional forester and member of the Beaufort Watershed Stewards. Weaver said his assessments of three different watersheds and 24,000 hectares show those lands have a higher risk of damage to water and habitat compared to public land. Over the years, there have been persistent calls for change to the program, especially on Vancouver Island where about one fifth of the land is made up of privately managed forests. Limited data sharing and transparency of logging practices allowed under the act make it hard for local governments to know what the risks really are, said Ben Geselbracht, president of the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities. “Municipalities are worried because of information around fire risk and standards around how close you can log to waterways and standards for cleanup. All these things can negatively impact their watershed,” Geselbracht said, referring to the several municipalities that are part of the association and rely on watersheds sealed behind the gates of privately managed forests for their drinking water supply. Improved regulation for PMFLs has been a longstanding issue for the association, which represents 54 local governments at the Union of BC Municipalities. Over the past 20 years, it has endorsed 23 resolutions — more than one per year on average — related to privately managed forest lands. “What they’re looking for is the same standards that apply on Crown land to apply on private property. I can understand and appreciate their concerns pertaining to that,” BC’s Minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar, told Canada’s National Observer. “What I would say is, we have a number of private licensees that do really good work here in British Columbia, and I would highlight Mosaic being the largest.” Parmar added he has recently spoken to Mosaic — a private forestry company that owns the lion’s share of PMFL land — and feels the company is taking steps to address local government concerns that don’t require legislative changes. He also said local governments are welcome to meet with companies like Mosaic and express their concerns to them directly. But Geselbracht said their attempts at this have been futile, and if the solution to decades old problems was as simple as meeting with these companies directly these problems would already have been solved. “That is the whole point of why provincial legislative changes are needed. Local governments have been trying to address these issues directly with the companies for a long time to no avail,” Geselbracht said. Under the act, the forest council can restrict local government attempts to legislate on PMFL land. The council can restrict municipalities from adopting bylaws or changing how they issue permits in ways that either directly or indirectly restrict forest management activity. “The minister’s comments reveal that there is more work to be done to make the Ministry of Forests aware of the serious challenges faced by local governments,” Geselbracht said. The amendment that never was Back in 2019, a glimmer of hope emerged for local government when the BC Ministry of Forests undertook a review of the act that sought to restore public confidence in the program. This culminated in a “What we Heard” report, which pointed to a clear desire for change from the majority of respondents, aside from PMFL owners themselves. Seventy per cent of respondents, more than half of whom said they lived on Vancouver Island, disagreed with the statement that the “current regulatory framework is effective.” The report also identifies Indigenous Nations feel that sustainable forest practice standards have not been adequately met, and are “frustrated with the lack of protection of their traditional use and spiritual sites.” Since then, there has been a change of premier, a pandemic and BC’s adoption of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, not reflected in the original review, Parmar said. As a result there has been no further action and six years later, correspondence between the BC Ministry of Forests and the Association of Vancouver Island and Coastal Communities reveal there is no plan to amend the act. “Presently, the ministry does not intend to make legislative changes to the PMFL Act as a result of the review,” the ministry wrote in an Aug. 21 letter. More recently, the provincial government has also had to contend with tariff threats imposed onto the forestry sector by US President Donald Trump. Consequently, the government’s capacity has had to focus more on the economy and retaining jobs under this new mandate. “One of the messages that I shared with local government leaders is I face capacity challenges. And again, I would say the biggest threat and the biggest thing that’s on my mind is worker protections pertaining to potentially thousands of jobs being lost in British Columbia,” Parmar said. That aligns with what Geselbracht has learned in drips of information over years of resolutions, terse responses and meetings. “We are told that their priority is to improve the revenue,” Geselbracht said. “The priority has been given to the minister to make sure we are producing revenue from our forests, to put all resources behind figuring out how to make permitting more efficient, and not to mess with the current practices.” In an email statement, the ministry confirmed Geselbracht’s understanding of the minister’s marching orders, citing a need to prioritize jobs and the economy in a time of uncertainty. “The forestry sector is facing many challenges and people in BC are feeling uncertain. Our priority is protecting the jobs and paychecks of workers in BC, and to do that, we are directing as many available resources as possible to support the broader economy,” a ministry spokesperson wrote in a statement. For Geselbracht, the delays have been frustrating. On Vancouver Island, the percentage of revenue that comes from privately managed forests is a small fraction of what comes from the province. He said the government should be able to meet its goals while also improving forest practices. “Fair enough if you don’t have the people power at this moment. But send the message that this is important.” Geselbracht said. In the August response letter to the association, the ministry said concerns that came up during the review are being addressed through “government actions that are not specific to amending the PMFL Act,” including the Modernizing Forest Policy initiative of 2021. The ministry maintains modernization to the act is being considered. In July, a month prior to the letter stating no legislative changes are coming as a result of the 2019 review, CBC reported the ministry is “working to modernize the act following the 2019 review.” When asked what changed between July and August, the ministry repeated it “continues to work with the Private Forest Landowners Association and the Managed Forest Council to modernize the Private Managed Forest Land Program.” Pressed on what modernizing the program means, the ministry responded generally about policy modernization and stated this process can lead to legislative changes, but did not say if it would happen in this case. “As government and public expectations change and evolve, policies need to do the same,” it added.