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Vol.4, Issue 1 · Mar. 2008 |  |
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The Liberal government's leadership on climate change brings mixed blessings to the forest sector. The International Panel on Climate Change articulated the role of forests and forest products in dealing with climate change noting, "In the long-term, a sustainable forest management strategy aimed at maintaining or increasing forest carbon stocks, while producing an annual sustained yield of timber, will generate the largest sustained mitigation benefit". In B.C. this has many positive ramifications: a forest sector that can achieve carbon neutrality, further greenhouse gas emission reductions, sequester carbon in the natural and managed forests, store carbon in long-lived, planet-friendly wood products, create biomass based carbon neutral energy that displaces fossils fuels, increase use of energy efficient wood products in our built environment and capture carbon based revenues for an industry reinventing itself. These opportunities will be critical in meeting the ambitious targets Premier Campbell has set. Minister of Finance Carole Taylor announced a revenue neutral carbon tax as the centrepiece of the 2008/09 provincial budget. On a macro level the tax appears revenue neutral. However, detailed analysis indicates significant disparities in the impacts of the tax. For the forest products sector preliminary estimates reveal that the forest industry will be paying in the range of $50 million annually. This is hardly the type of economic measure the industry can absorb at a time when we are facing the biggest financial and market crisis in our history and is certainly inconsistent with previous government commitments to lower costs embodied in the 90-day Regulatory Review process. Mixed messages such as these make a bad situation worse. The problem with the carbon tax is that it badly impairs our competitiveness. The revenue neutral elements of the budget will not offset the additional costs. Corporate income tax reductions require that income is generated which is not likely for the sector over the next two years. More problematic is that B.C. is so far out ahead of the rest of the world that there are no mechanisms to capture the value of carbon in our forests and forest products for several years, whether from higher cap and trade allocations, offsets from our forests and forest products or bioenergy sales. So the question is how do we manage this transition so the forest industry isn't bankrupted by a carbon tax before we capitalize on these opportunities? Stumpage offsets, cap and trade allocations that recognize the sector's GHG reductions, implementation of the Cabinet's commitments on energy pricing by B.C. Hydro in the bioenergy call, reduced property taxes and cost savings in the port and rail infrastructure are all viable options. |
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This year's award was presented to Lubor Trubka, Lubor Trubka Architect for the Tseshaht First Nations Tribal Multiplex in Port Alberni. The building showcases the natural beauty of wood and heralds a new era of the use of wood by First Nations people, while embodying the values of the important cultural heritages of West Coast First Nations, including their respect of and connection to nature. Instead of disturbing the site, this unique building evolved naturally, following the contours and outlines of the rocky bluff on which it is located. "The wood structure appears to be floating above the river's edge, maintaining the symbiotic relationship between the internal spaces and natural exterior," commented the jury. The structure is a combination of open-framed post-and-beam and also utilizes a multitude of engineered wood products and a variety of natural lumber products.
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The Ombudsman made 17 safety-related recommendations in his report, dealing with matters ranging from calling on WorkSafeBC to addressing issues of cycle time to exploring substance abuse in the sector. To find out more about the BC Forest Safety Ombudsman and his second review and report, visit www.bcforestsafe.org
Former interim B.C. Lotteries President and CEO Dana Hayden will be vice-chair of the roundtable, which will report to Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman, who chairs the committee. The roundtable will report to Cabinet every 90 days with an eye to acting "aggressively" on industry's input. "What's important," says Coast Forest's Rick Jeffery, "is that the roundtable is able to establish and focus on priority issues in order to provide practical advice that Cabinet can act upon to position the industry for the future." Campbell told the industry that the minister of forests and range "is committed to acting on his recommendations and to building the kind of long-term focused future that's necessary." Some are skeptical about the ability of the roundtable to achieve this goal, while undertaking "an exhaustive review of all facets of the forest industry, with public meetings in all regions of the province." As the Vancouver Sun's Vaughn Palmer (January 19) put it: "Got a troubled industry? Campbell's got a roundtable". Let's hope this roundtable is different.
"Recognition by government that the forest industry is in the midst of the worst economic conditions ever experienced by the sector is positive," says Coast Forest's Rick Jeffery, "Done right, the 90-day process has the potential to generate immediate measures to assist the forest sector through the current crisis." Coast Forest is currently assessing and preparing a critical list of issues for presentation to the 90-day Review. |
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 SAFETY UPDATE Coast Forest members' and staff's thoughts and prayers are with the friends, families and loved ones of the two fallers who recently lost their lives falling timber. In four short weeks this year, the coastal communities of Courtenay and Gold River experienced a forest worker not returning home at the end of a shift. In both cases the deceased were experienced certified fallers.
These latest tragic fatalities highlight the sheer magnitude of the safety issue the forest sector is dealing with which was emphasized in January by John Doyle, Auditor-General of B.C., in his 88-page progress report, "Preventing Fatalities and Serious Injuries in B.C. Forests: Progress Needed". The purpose of the audit was to assess the government's progress toward fulfilling the commitments it made to improving forest worker safety during 2003 and 2004. The auditor-general concluded that government efforts are getting underway but haven't yet proven effective in reducing deaths and injury. Doyle lauded the effort of both government and industry but said work needs to be done to change the attitude toward safety. After reviewing the audit's contents, Coast Forest's CEO Rick Jeffery said, "Member companies, of course, want to continue to pursue improvement in programs, practices and safety records. However, numerous inaccuracies contained in the audit are troubling to us." The BC Forest Safety Council is reviewing the report to identify areas with unsupported statements or inaccuracies to ensure the record is correct and ultimately assist in the implementation of the recommendations. The report made 15 recommendations in total. The top recommendation is for government to assign one ministry to be responsible for regulatory change. Forests and Range Minister Rich Coleman has promised to implement all of the auditor-general's recommendations. "Unfortunately, the auditor-general missed an opportunity to point out the positive work that has been done throughout the sector," comments Keith Rush, Safety Advisor for Coast Forest Products Association. "Since the disastrous year of 2005 where we experienced 43 fatalities, tremendous effort, focus and progress have been made on worker safety, safety programs, SAFE certification, faller certification, training, forest roads and the trucking sector." Nevertheless, as the last few weeks have proven, improvement is needed and steps will continue to be taken to ensure safety is the top priority in all operations. CARBON TAX (CONT'D FROM PAGE 1)The government says it will bring both personal and corporate tax rates down to the lowest in Canada. The general corporate income tax rate will be reduced from 12 to 11 per cent on July 1, 2008 and the government expects it to fall to 10 per cent over the next three years.
Although the government's carbon tax purports to be revenue neutral, the corporate sector appears to bear a heavier burden. About two-thirds of the $1.8 billion generated by the tax will be collected from business, which will only receive about a third of the corresponding tax credits and reductions, the rest of which flow through to individual taxpayers. CELEBRATING WOOD (CONT'D FROM PAGE 2)
The Gala serves as an excellent opportunity to publicly recognize and encourage continued excellence in the building and design community, and in the forest industry. Awards are generously sponsored by industry and the provincial government, through Forestry Innovation Investment. For more information on the awards, recipients and the benefits of building with wood, please visit www.wood-works.org |
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