News Coverage

 

VANCOUVER – British Columbia’s political leaders made Earth Day the backdrop to their campaigning Monday, using environmentally-themed events that said as much about their approaches as the substance of their announcements.

NDP Leader Adrian Dix was in Environment Minister Terry Lake’s Kamloops riding to broadly imply a government led by him would likely put a stop to the proposed twinning of the Kinder Morgan pipeline through Burnaby, B.C., to the Burrard Inlet off Vancouver.

Dix said he would await the results of the necessary reviews held into the project that would triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain pipeline, but he added: “We do not expect Vancouver to become a major oil export port as appears to be suggested in what Kinder Morgan is proposing.”

In the past, Dix has taken a similar stance on the development of the Northern Gateway pipeline, saying an NDP government would opt out of a joint federal review already underway for more than a year and conduct its own environmental probe. Dix has also said in the past he is opposed to the project.

Liberal Leader Christy Clark took her campaign to two Vancouver-based environmental tech companies to talk about jobs the green economy can provide.

Solegear Bioplastics makes plastics from plants instead of oil. The company says in its promotional material that its products, which can be used in everything from packaging to office furniture and toys, are compostable and non-toxic.

The second company, Saltworks Technologies Inc., has developed desalination technologies that have been used by customers as diverse as NASA and the Alberta oil patch.

“Clean tech is creating the jobs of tomorrow,” Clark said after touring Saltworks, which employs 40 people and last year, was named to the Global Cleantech 100, a list produced by a global research and advisory firm.

“The NDP would stifle this kind of innovation. We know they don’t understand the economy, and we know that they would move backward on the environment, too. They have opposed policy after policy that we have brought in to protect B.C.’s environment and spur innovation.”

In a rare glimmer of agreement, both leaders expressed doubts about the Pacific Carbon Trust, the agency that was created with the goal of turning B.C. into one of the world’s leading carbon-neutral economies.

Critics, including the B.C. auditor general’s office, say the agency is almost 99 per cent taxpayer funded — $14 million — and forces schools, hospitals and other public entities to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on carbon credits, while private businesses sell their credits for cash.

Dix said Monday he would eliminate the carbon trust. He said public institutions have paid millions of dollars into the program, while private companies get money in turn for simply listing an inventory of uncut forests or unused gas projects.

“The government’s view on carbon-neutral government is to take money from cash-starved hospitals and give it to big polluters,” Dix said. “We think that money should be kept to support public institutions.”

He said an NDP government would have public institutions pay to offset their carbon emissions, but the money would be used to fund green projects.

The NDP also proposes to take $30 million in accrued earnings in the current Pacific Carbon Trust account and use the money for energy efficiency projects in the public sector.

Clark agreed the Pacific Carbon Trust hasn’t worked the way it was supposed to and said if she wins the election, her government would review the program.

“It hasn’t worked that well,” she said.

But she said the NDP has repeatedly opposed efforts by the Liberals to confront environmental problems.

Dix said Monday, though, that a government led by him would seek to meet the Liberals’ legislated greenhouse gas emissions targets. The Liberals under former premier Gordon Campbell pledged to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by one-third by 2020.

In a news conference near the banks of the North Thompson River in Kamloops, Dix said an NDP government would invest $120 million over the next three years to fight climate change in urban and rural communities.

Much of that money would come from the NDP’s earlier announcement to shift revenues from the carbon tax, which currently go to tax cuts, to transit projects and green initiatives.

For their part, B.C. Conservatives issued a news release saying any talk of ending the Pacific Carbon Trust is thievery from their own long-held position.

“I’m pleased that Adrian Dix and the NDP continue to steal our policies,” leader John Cummins said in a news release.

But he slammed Dix’s commitment to expanding the carbon tax, saying the Conservatives would end that too.

The Ancient Forest Alliance, too, used Earth Day to take aim at the NDP’s environmental stance on forestry, which was outlined last week.

Ken Wu, the group’s executive director, said it’s hard to tell what Dix’s announcement last week on protecting old-growth means.

“The NDP’s environment platform is like a blurry moving sasquatch video in regards to potential old-growth forest protections and park creation — you can’t discern if it’s real and significant, or if it’s just Dix in a fake gorilla costume running to get attention,” said Wu.

“We need the NDP to commit to a science-based plan to fully protect BC’s endangered old-growth forests on Crown lands, to ensure sustainable second-growth forestry, and to commit to a B.C. park acquisition fund to purchase and protect endangered ecosystems on private lands.”

Earlier in the day, Clark appeared on a Vancouver talk show and sparred with the host about her government’s latest budget.

The Liberal party has staked its political fortunes on a balanced budget by the end of this fiscal year, but the NDP claimed the budget is actually at least $800 million in deficit. The NDP has said it would not balance B.C.’s books until the end of their four-year mandate if they were to be elected.

“Whether or not the budget is balanced isn’t based on what people believe or what municipal managers believe,” the premier said. “Go ask Moody’s. … they said it was balanced. These are the world’s experts. Dominion Bond Rating said the budget was balanced, again, the world experts in this.”

A few hours later, Clark dialed back her claim.

“What they say is we have a superior record of fiscal management and they say that our revenue targets are absolutely on,” Clark said. “In contrast, the NDP say our budget isn’t balanced because they say our revenue targets are all out, well, the NDP isn’t telling the truth about that.”

In a report issued April 12, Standard & Poor’s affirmed the province’s AAA rating but did not proclaim the budget balanced.

Company analyst Paul Judson said the incumbent Liberal government introduced a budget with a plan to bring the province’s operating budget “back into balance” in fiscal 2014.

Rating agencies are “agnostic,” he said.

But Helmut Pastrick, chief economist for the Central 1 Credit Union, said while the reports are not an endorsement of any political party or government, they could be considered a warning about economic direction.

“Perhaps its just a cautionary note, if you will,” Pastrick said.

In its March 26 report, Toronto-based Dominion Bond Rating Service confirmed the province’s high rating on long- and short-term debt, but also noted that the budget measures may not be implemented before the May 14 vote.

“Nevertheless, the fiscal progress made to date and a relatively low debt burden in relation to peers provide British Columbia with sufficient flexibility within its current ratings, be it to withstand further economic malaise or a potential relaxation in fiscal discipline,” said the report by Travis Shaw, vice-president of public finance.

Moody’s Investors Service affirmed an AAA rating in its April 4 report, citing the province’s “strong fiscal flexibility and track record of prudent fiscal management.”

Neither Moody’s nor DBRS declared B.C.’s latest budget to be balanced.

Link to Maclean’s online article: www2.macleans.ca/2013/04/22/earth-day-forms-backdrop-to-b-c-election-campaign/

PRINCE GEORGE – New Democrat Leader Adrian Dix has released a multimillion dollar election plan that he believes will help grow and improve B.C.'s forest industry, but critics say the proposal makes promises that will be hard to keep.

In Prince George Monday, Dix announced the five-point forestry plan that would see $310 million invested in the industry over five years if his party wins the election in May.

The NDP leader announced his government would invest in skills training, to improve forest health, to expand global markets for B.C. lumber and to cut raw log exports, while it reinstates a jobs protection commissioner.

“Skills training is really the principle focus of our economic plan, to ensure young people have the skills they need for the jobs of the future,'' Dix said.

The B.C. Liberal Party immediately criticized the plan, saying it lacks policy details.

“After months of delay, I think British Columbians were expecting more,'' said Forest Minister Steve Thomson in a news release.

George Hoberg, a forest policy expert at the University of British Columbia, said Dix's promise to reduce raw log exports will be hard to keep.

“Raw logs are always something that politicians talk about, but it's actually very hard to deliver in terms of either policy or real change in the industry,'' Hoberg said.

“Our comparative advantage is in raw resource material or in commodities, not in more labour-intensive value-added production,''
he said.

The NDP's commitment to improve forest health includes an emphasis on increasing the province's research capacity, updating forest inventories and doubling the number of seedlings planted annually.

Hoberg said he is impressed with the plan's focus on forest health.

“The biggest challenge that we face in forestry is renewing the forest that has been disseminated by the mountain pine beetle and the Liberals have not been particularly effective at investing resources on that,'' Hoberg said.

“The one big change that we will likely see, if the NDP is elected, is a greater commitment to government funding of inventory and silviculture,'' he said.

Hoberg was surprised at the lack of discussion of environmental issues in the NDP plan – something he said the Liberal forestry plan also lacks.

Ken Wu at the Ancient Forest Alliance called the plan “a big disappointment ecologically.''

“It essentially continues the unsustainable status quo of old growth liquidation and over cutting which has led to the collapse of ecosystems and communities,'' Wu said.

Dix campaigned for party leadership with a promise to address old growth deforestation, but he now appears to be reneging on his commitment, Wu said.

“We are hoping that the party will move forward with additional policy commitments in the lead up to the election so that Dix fulfills his promise to develop a provincial old growth plan which was his 2011 leadership bid promise,'' Wu said.

Dix said the plan was developed in consultation with forest industry businesses, union leaders and with communities.

Some of the suggestions are in line with a 2011 report created by the B.C. Government and Service Employees Union, which suggests tightening raw log exports and increasing staff levels within the B.C. forest service.

A spokesperson from the Council of Forest Industries, which represents over a dozen forest companies in the province, wasn't available for comment.

Globe and Mail online article: www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/ndps-forestry-policy-plank-sparks-partisan-ire-disappoints-ecologists/article11253131/

*Note: The Green Party has adopted the key recommendations of the Environmental Law Clinic’s proposed Old-Growth Protection Act. It appears that the NDP support the scientific assessment component of the proposal, however they have not yet committed to the calls for protection and fully ending old-growth logging in endangered regions.

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Up-to-date science and legislation without massive loopholes is needed to protect B.C.’s remaining old-growth forests, says the University of Victoria’s Environmental Law Clinic.

The proposed Old-Growth Protection Act was produced by the clinic at the request of the Ancient Forest Alliance. The group’s executive director, Ken Wu, hopes it will spur the government to action.

“It’s time for a new, science-based plan,” he said.

An industry transition to second-growth trees is inevitable as the last unprotected old-growth stands are logged, Wu said.

“We simply want the B.C. government to ensure the transition is completed sooner, while these ancient forests still stand.”

The proposal, which is similar to a plan released Friday by the Green Party of B.C., is based on immediately stopping old-growth logging in critically endangered forests and phasing out old-growth logging where there’s a high risk to biodiversity and the ecosystem.

Major elements of the plan include appointing a science panel to carry out inventories and forest risk assessments, establishing different harvest rates for old-growth and second-growth, and legally designating old-growth reserves so there are consistent, enforceable rules.

Calvin Sandborn, the clinic’s legal director, said the plan is practical, science-based and politically doable.

“We wanted something that would fix the flaws in the current system, and the flaws are numerous,” he said.

Protection now offered by old-growth management areas is limited, Sandborn said.

Boundaries are adjusted to move protected areas away from valuable old-growth stands, logging is conducted under the guise of protecting forest health, small, stunted old-growth trees are protected, rather than big stands, and areas protected under forest rules can still be harvested by the oil and gas industry, Sandborn said.

If science and current mapping were used to establish which areas should be protected, much of the political heat would disappear, especially as protecting ancient trees produces more jobs over the long term than cutting them down, he said.

“These trees are our equivalent of the ancient cathedrals of Europe,” he said.

Forests Minister Steve Thomson could not be reached Friday.

NDP environment critic Rob Fleming said the proposed legislation “speaks to the urgency of the issue.”

“The idea of a science panel to assess the inventory of old growth on the Island is a good one, and I think it’s supportable,” he said. “It echoes an earlier call from the Forest Practices Board.”

The Green party is also calling for more science-based assessments and a provincial inventory of remaining old-growth forests.

“Given the scarcity of remaining productive old growth in much of our province, it is clear that we need to head in a new science-based direction to manage our forests,” said Green leader Jane Sterk.

The party also wants to see incentives for companies to retool mills so they can handle second-growth trees, and emergency protection for endangered ecosystems, such as the eastern Vancouver Island coastal Douglas fir zone.

There’s a new confrontation brewing in British Columbia forests and it’s coming from an unlikely source. The latest battle to protect Vancouver Island’s forests isn’t being waged by an environmental organization—it’s being waged by business, in particular, the tourism industry. A group of tourism businesses in the Discovery Islands, near Campbell River, are charging the government with indifference to the needs of a major economic player in the region.

The Discovery Islands Marine Tourism Group is a coalition of businesses including the local Chamber of Commerce, which claims provincial forest policies designed by the BCLiberal government are encouraging the forest industry to clear-cut forests along marine corridors which are critical to the survival of a large wilderness based tourism industry.
The group went public with its concerns by publishing a full page ad in the Victoria Times Colonist criticizing the government for its inaction.

Spokesperson Ralph Keller says the group wanted to send a strong message to government that forest management polices aren’t working for Discovery Islands business, employees and their families. ‘We’ve spent a lot of time and money trying to convince the government there’s a serious problem here but they’re not listening.’

The Discovery Islands are home to over 120 tourism-dependent businesses: lodges, resorts, motels, campgrounds, marinas, tour companies, and related operations which employ over 1,200 people and generate $45 million in revenue every year. ‘The Discovery Islands have become a world class destination worthy of increased protection,’ Keller said. ‘We’ve become the second most important marine wilderness destination in BC, behind Tofino/Pacific Rim, yet the government is managing the forests here like its 1956. They’re treating us like bystanders instead of major revenue producers and employers.’

Keller went on to say that in the last 15 years, Vancouver Island has lost most of its pulp mills and saw mills and with them thousands of jobs—now out-sourced to Asia. ‘The once great forest industry is now just a logging industry acting with impunity, completely insensitive to our needs. They degrade our operating environment then send the timber not only out of the region, but out of the country. Is this supposed to be the BCLiberal commitment to jobs and families?’
‘We’re not against logging, but when the government revised the Forest Range & Practices Act in 2003, they gave all the power to the logging industry and left every one else out of the planning process.’

He went on to say that tourism operators are kept completely in the dark about cutting plans. “We find out about forest development plans when we start to see trees being felled. We’re being misled about forest industry intentions and have no meaningful way to influence cut block design. When we complain to government, they tell us to go talk to the licensees. Who’s writing the rules here? Whose forests are these? It’s pretty clear this government is about corporate
resource extraction and everybody else is just in the way”

Read More: https://www.islandtides.com/assets/IslandTides.pdf