The BC Council of Forest Industries (COFI) held their annual conference in Prince George this week, this morning (Friday) Premier David Eby gave a keynote speech to a sold-out Civic Centre to close the gathering.
He spoke on the future of the industry, and what is needed to move forward through the struggles it has had in recent months.
“Our forests are so clearly who we are as a province,” he told the crowd. “It is over 60% of our land base, and about 50,000 jobs that are directly dependent on our forests.”
“The vital message I have heard from the sector is predictability,” Eby told the media after his speech. “Our goal as a government is to help deliver that.”
This is easier said than done, he said some factors that make forestry less predictable include forest fires, court rulings around permits, and the end of the beetle-kill wood.
One issue that Eby addressed, and said he wants to fix, surrounds long permitting times.
“It is unacceptable that permitting creates multi-year delays but doesn’t add anything in terms of quality of the final outcome. We are going to maintain our high standards, but reform our permitting process so it is timely and predictable for people, and so that it works.”
He said the province has also hired 40 additional workers who are cutting into the permitting backlog in BC.
This issue does not lay solely on the back of the province, Eby said it will take work from all levels of government to reform systems – and that he has had positive discussions with the federal government about getting to work on it.
He reassured Prince George and Northern BC that forestry will remain a “foundational industry” in the province moving forward, despite this “time of transition.”
“I don’t see a solution to climate change that doesn’t include wood products,” he said, “I don’t see a solution to some of the big challenges we face economically around rural community economic stability that doesn’t include the forest industry.”
He also spoke to media about the criminal justice system, health care, and homelessness in Prince George, and said he would be meeting with the city right after the conference.