In March 2003 the Campbell government passed the Forestry Revitalization Act which confiscated tenure rights of forest companies and removed their legal redress. It limited all compensation to no more than $200 million; it also established the BC Forestry Revitalization Trust, the purpose of which is to mitigate the damages suffered by eligible persons as "a result of restructuring of the forestry sector and forestry operations within British Columbia, arising out of reductions under the Forestry Revitalization Act of harvesting rights available to licensees under the Forest Act." In a manner typical of its abuse of power, the Act was passed in a late night sitting on March 31st.

If an NDP government had attempted to remove the right of forest companies to sue the government for the expropriation of tenure rights, the lawns of the legislature would have been packed with protestors. Friends of and major donors to the Campbell government kept their mouths closed; however, legal challenges might still arise after the next election is safely behind us.

Legislation by exhaustion was employed, notwithstanding the government's enormous majority, in order to keep the costs arising from the Act in the 2002-2003 fiscal year. Section 10(4) of the Act states "In the 2002-2003 fiscal year of the government, the minister must pay $75 million out of the consolidated revenue fund to the BC Forestry Revitalization Trust." During debate on Section 10, Forestry Minister Mike de Jong confirmed that $47 million would be available to displaced forest resource workers, $23 million to forestry contractors and $5 million for administration of the Trust.

Minister de Jong admitted during debate that pension bridging for early retirement of displaced workers was estimated to cost $150 million. His explanation for the shortfall between that and the government's $47 million provided to the Trust for displaced workers was that there would be "additional moneys from other sources".

Friday, January 21, the Campbell government announced that it would provide a further $50 million to the Trust "to help workers and contractors". It is a good thing that the government is making up for part of the shortfall that was identified in 2003, but its news release did not acknowledge that it was correcting a shortfall that was known when the Trust was established, nor did the release say which of the "other sources" failed to deliver. Maybe that's why the announcement was made on a Friday, a day usually reserved for releasing bad news so as to minimize coverage.

News coverage has been skimpy on job loses in forestry. Data from BC Stats and Statistics Canada's Labour Force Survey show that average monthly employment in forestry dropped by 22.4% in 2004. Employment in sawmills and paper and allied manufacturing also fell by 10.4%. Between jobs in the woods and forestry manufacturing jobs, average monthly employment was 12,900 lower in 2004 than in 2003. As a result of the restructuring of the forest industry, loss of tenure and elimination of provisions that tie wood supply to communities, those jobs may not come back even if the softwood dispute is settled. Based on the $150 million estimate of the costs for pension bridging that was made when the legislation was introduced, it looks like Friday's $50 million top-up may still fall short.