A government report obtained by independent MLA Bob Simpson is warning of up to 12,000 lost jobs in the interior forest industry over the next five years as timber killed by the mountain pine beetle is exhausted.
And Simpson says this should come as no surprise to the BC Liberals.
Simpson said “everybody’s known that, for ten years, ministers like minister bell have been putting lipstick on the pig that everybody knew was there, we’ve not got the plans in place, this is gonna be catastrophic for these communities, catastrophic for these employees.”
The report says job losses could be kept to under 9000 if the government allowed logging in areas that are currently off-limits for environmental reasons, Simpson says the Liberals must consult the public before making that decision.
The Ministry of Forests confirms 12,000 jobs “could” be lost if the government takes no action to deal with the collapse of the pine beetle harvest.
But it says government is looking at relaxing things like “visual quality objectives” and other so-called “constraints” on harvesting.
It also says government should be in a position to begin public dialogue on the issue in the next couple of months.
And it notes the document Simpson obtained was “inadvertantly” posted on line and was only a draft report.
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