Report urges major tenure reform
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A report on the future of B.C.’s forest industry, written for the BC Business Council and unveiled at its Outlook 2020 summit session last week, urges government to make reforms that put investors and capital ahead of other forestry interests.
The report’s sole recommendation is to gives tenancy rights to forest companies, which would allow them to make leasehold improvements on the land. The report says tenancy rights is the key to developing a smaller, well-capitalized industry, and that if government fails to transform the tenure system, B.C. will see more mill closures and industry decline.
It urges government to build a totally new tenure system that would give investors greater security and get rid of federal restrictions on forest company consolidation and provincial log export restrictions.
The forest industry is the best sector to develop bioenergy potential and to manage silviculture to sequester greenhouse gases, the report said.
Environmental groups were among the first to react, saying they have big concerns about giving forest companies more rights over land access and management without addressing environmental issues such as biodiversity and climate change.
Key points in the report raise a lot of questions about how the government will proceed with tenure reform, silviculture initiatives and opening up the forest industry to new entrants and emerging industries.
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