Consultation Rejects Working Forest

August 15, 2003

Consultation rejects Hagen's Working Forest Initiative

On January 22, 2003, Stan Hagen, Minister of Sustainable Resource Management, invited the public to comment on its "Working Forest Initiative (WFI)". The consultation report that has now been released says that of 2,692 written submissions, only 1% supported the government's scheme. The report on the consultation was prepared for government by Daryl Brown Associates Inc., Environmental Planning Consultants. The executive summary says that "The general public, First Nations, environmental organizations, recreation interests and some community interests strongly oppose the WFI. Only a handful of general public respondents voiced support for the WFI. A main concern among these interests is that the WFI will lead to loss of government control to manage Crown forest land in the broader and longer-term public interest on a sustainable basis."

In face of overwhelming opposition to the government's proposal, Hagen has claimed that most people actually like the scheme and that much of the opposition was coordinated by the Western Canada Wilderness Committee. Once again, as was the case with the Coquihalla and with BC Rail, the government's mind is made up and it doesn't want to listen to people. Most of the submissions in the public consultation were from individuals. Only 133 came from organizations which are listed in an appendix to the report. Anyone who looks at the list of organizations will immediately see that they make up their own mind and express their own opinions. WC Squared may be a powerful lobby but it is an insult to think that the organizations listed in the report, plus 2,559 individuals who made submissions, were their puppets.

Before the government launches another advertising campaign to convince the public that government knows best, it should study the full consultation report. It says that common perceptions are that the WFI will:

"represent the transference of increased property rights to forestry companies,
create a government liability to pay compensation to companies if Crown land is ever removed from the WF to accommodate other requirements,
prevent or constrain government's future flexibility to dedicate Crown land for parks / protected areas, conservation purposes, or other purposes that might be incompatible with timber management,
result in a reduction in the amount of existing park land as part of a 'no-net-loss' arrangement in situations where government decides to remove land from the WF designation,
involve a relaxation of forest stewardship standards and forest licensee responsibilities for protecting non-timber resource values - with the result that other values like drinking water, biodiversity, fish, wildlife, recreation, etc. will be damaged,
lock BC communities and forest workers into primary resource / commodity forest product dependency and a continued downward trend of job loss and socio-economic instability,
establish a hierarchy of resource sector importance, with the forest sector on top, to the detriment of other sectors such as tourism, agriculture, mining or oil and gas,
open the door for increased sales / privatization of public forest land,
over-ride or compromise existing and future Land and Resource Management Plans or other locally-developed land and resource management plans,
mean that allowable annual cut levels will automatically be increased to unsustainable levels in the WF designation,
impact negatively on existing or future tenure rights that are granted in the WF to other sectors, and
result in Crown land decisions that lack transparency and accountability because, as a result of proposed changes to the Land Act, they will be made through Order-in-Council or ministerial order, rather than by the full legislature."

It is not surprising that government's discussion paper on the "Working Forest Initiative" produced so much opposition. The paper gave a detailed explanation of how Crown land in the Provincial Forest could be converted to private-land status (e.g. leases, licences or other private legal rights). It then noted that the decision making process for converting Crown land to private-land status will change under legislation that designates the working forest "with the Minister of Sustainable Resource Management playing the primary role."

The paper said that "Crown forest land in B.C. will be legally designated as Working Forest. At that time, the current Provincial Forest designations will be rescinded." Currently there are 140 Provincial Forests which encompass 75 million hectares. The proposed "working forest" will include about 45 million hectares. The paper was not clear on what the effects will be from excluding 30 million hectares from the designation of Provincial Forest without capturing that land in the new definition.

The infamous New Era Document promised "The most open, accountable and democratic government in Canada." It is not democratic to arrogantly dismiss an extensive consultation process, or to run taxpayer paid government ads to tell people that government knows best. It is a good idea to provide security to resource dependent communities, but the Campbell government's version of a "working forest" comes far too close to privatizing crown land. It would be democratic to go back to the drawing board, redraft the discussion paper complete with draft legislation and repeat the consultation until a proposal is developed that receives broad public support.