As everyone knows, BC has a lot of trees. From a climate change perspective the nice thing about trees (forests, really) is that they suck carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. In the jargon, forests are a “sink”, reducing CO2 emissions, rather than a “source” that contributes them. At least, that used to be the [...]
Entries Tagged as 'forestry'
That sinking feeling: BC’s forests and CO2 emissions
September 15th, 2009 · Marc Lee · 1 Comment · Climate change, Environment, resources & sustainability
Tags: CO2 emissions·forestry
Oh, about that recession …
April 27th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Economy
BC’s recession started in 2008. That is the upshot of today’s release of Statistics Canada’s Provincial Economic Accounts, which provides the first estimates of BC’s GDP for 2008. Unlike national data, which are provided quarterly and on a timely basis, we have to wait about four months to tally the various provincial beans. These numbers [...]
Tags: Agriculture·budget·campaign·construction·deficit·exports·fishing·forestry·mining·oil and gas·recession·service cuts
A whole lotta waste goin’ on
April 3rd, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Climate change, Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Last week, research I completed for the CCPA was released suggesting that in the last five years alone the forest industry in this province has managed to leave 17.5 million cubic metres of usable wood behind at logging operations. Loaded onto logging trucks, you could fill a cross-Canada convoy just about twice with that material. [...]
Following the money in BC communities
March 12th, 2009 · Marc Lee · Comments Off · Economy, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability, Poverty, inequality & welfare, Provincial budget & finance, Taxes
It is one of those publications that few media outlets will report on, and even fewer British Columbians will read, but BC Stats just released the latest version of its Local Area Economic Dependencies, updated based on 2006 census data. This publication basically asks where the income in various BC communities comes from. In many [...]
Tags: EI·employment·forestry·public sector·transfer payments·welfare
Bioenergy – Catching on like a house on fire or set for slow burn?
March 11th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Energy, Environment, resources & sustainability
As the global economic meltdown and in particular the US housing market collapse continues to savage BC lumber producers, government leaders boldly predict that wood-fired energy – “bioenergy” – will ride to the rescue of a shell-shocked industry and brutalized rural, resource towns dealing with soaring unemployment rates. February’s Speech from the Throne is a [...]
First Nations as forest partners may be Roundtable’s most significant recommendation
March 10th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability, First Nations & Aboriginal
There’s plenty to be concerned about with the recommendations emanating from the Working Roundtable on Forestry – an open door for raw log exports, diminished corporate taxes for cash-strapped rural municipalities, and a steady creep toward de facto privatization of some public forestlands. And in coming postings I’ll speak more about what’s on the negative [...]
Pining for some straight talk
March 6th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
BC Forests Minister Pat Bell grabbed plenty of headlines this week when he said that the threats posed to resource communities by the mountain pine beetle infestation may be overstated. Stories about a rapid deterioration in the quality of trees attacked by the beetles, Bell suggested, are wrong. In fact, the minister said, he expects [...]
Memo to Colin Hansen: Time for forest industry reality check
March 2nd, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
If Finance Minister Colin Hansen’s budget forecasts are right, British Columbia’s battered forest industry is in for a modest recovery this coming fiscal year and a more robust recovery in 2010/2011. Gian Sandhu isn’t buying it. Owner of the Jackpine Group of Companies in Williams Lake, Sandhu was a leading light in British Columbia’s interior [...]
Tags: forestry·pine beetle·recession
Axing the Forest Service: The Cuts Continue
February 27th, 2009 · Ben Parfitt · Comments Off · Economy, Environment, resources & sustainability
Well it looks like they’re getting ready to wield the axe yet again at the Ministry of Forests, and that the latest victims will join a long list of their sisters and brothers whose jobs were to protect the public interest and ensure that our publicly owned forests were responsibly managed. In its latest annual [...]
"The (not so) slow de-industrialization of the province"
February 26th, 2009 · Geoff Mann · Comments Off · Economy, Employment & labour, Environment, resources & sustainability
Yesterday, Catalyst Paper announced the closure of the Crofton kraft pulp mill, a week after shutting the doors at its 350-employee mill in Campbell River and “restructuring” (laying off 127 workers) at its Powell River facility. That’s 850 job losses in basically one shot. It is not the first shot, either, and it definitely won’t [...]
Tags: BC Federation of Labour·Campbell River·Catalyst Paper·forestry·unemployment
