Independent Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson and BC First Party interim president Gary Young met recently for an informal, political conversation in a Williams Lake bistro.

Simpson says he and Young discussed a bill, calling for a “pretty radical change” to election financing, the MLA currently has in front of the legislature.

“[Young] indicated he liked the idea I had put forward, that the only way you can really honour ‘one person, one vote’ is to allow only the people who have the right to vote to donate to political parties.”

Simpson notes some organizations, such as large corporations and unions, use money to distort this principle (that all citizens are entitled to equal legislative representation), as do some wealthy individuals.

By disallowing political contributions by organizations or anyone not registered to vote, he says, directly ties one’s intention to vote to their right to donate.

His proposed method also caps donations to political parties to $1,000 year, and Simpson notes it forces the candidates, politicians and parties to go back to the voters.

Young says Simpson and BC First are “like minded” and they have also “both joined hands” with Integrity BC in its petition to pursue similar electoral change.

Young adds BC First believes in more constituency representation instead of top-down mandates for politicians to toe the party line whether they like it or not.

“We don’t agree with the lobbyist principles.”

Simpson confirms his office is talking with Integrity BC about its campaign on election reform.

While lobbying is restricted by the [Lobbyists Registration Act, he says this control has varying degrees of success, but his private member's bill on election finance reform can place the voters in the driver's seat.

"[With my reform plan] they can whisper in my ear all they want about various other things, but I know as a politician in order to fundraise for my next campaign, I’ve got to go to individual citizens with a right to vote. I have to listen to them, and I have to reflect what they say in what I do, and in what I say….”

Simpson adds his bill is currently on the order paper for this current legislative session.

Alliance with independents

Young and Simpson also discussed their mutual efforts toward promoting more independent political representatives in the province.

Simpson says he constantly encourages and supports others to run as independent candidates across the province. He adds the BC First interim president agreed on that aspect of politics.

Young says his party is also seeking alliances with the province’s two independent MLAs.

“Our view is that if we had a provincial government run by independents, or the independents had the balance of power, we would see a government far more responsive to the problems we have.

“We like the idea and our slogan will be “an alliance of independent thought.”

BC First plans to provide support to “like-minded individuals” who would run as independents, he says, such as offering them availability to its web-based and election resources.

He adds while BC First continues to pursue working together with independents, having more candidates within the party is also a priority.

“We would love to run some [BC First] candidates in the upcoming election, and if they do, they will have our assurance they will be treated as independents. No one at the top will be telling them what to do.”

By Don Hawkins
Tuesday, February 21, 2012 05:39 AM

Prince George, B.C. – Don’t be surprised if Premier Christy Clark calls British Columbians to the polls in a general election this spring, a full year ahead of the election which is due on May 14, 2013.

At least one sitting member of the legislature feels that is not only possible but quite likely.

Cariboo-North Independent MLA Bob Simpson says he’s taken notice of all the high profile government announcements of late, including the LNG strategy in the northeast, record exports to Asia and the Seniors Care program improvements, to mention a few. Simpson says the Liberal strategists could be waiting to see what happens in two by-elections that are coming up.

Two former Liberal MLA’s who’ve packed it in, Ian Black in Port Moody-Coquitlam and Barry Penner in Chilliwack-Hope, have to be replaced, Black in about a month and Penner shortly after that.

Simpson says Clark may wait to see how the John Cummins Conservatives do in those votes. If they win either, says Simpson, Clark won’t be able to wait until next year because the Conservatives would have much more time to build strength across the province. Simpson says Clark is boxing herself into a tight corner. He says “it’s interesting to see Clark, who describes herself as a small “l” Liberal, having to move to the right to try and capture the Conservative vote.” He says she risks losing the centre Liberal vote and that could prove disastrous in an election.

Simpson says as far as a trigger issue goes, look no further than the current teachers’ situation.

Two weeks ago Labour, Citizens’ Services and Open Government Minister Margaret MacDiarmid instructed the assistant deputy minister of industrial relations to report on the likelihood of a negotiated contract settlement between the B.C. Teachers Federation and the B.C. Public School Employers’ Association. Trevor Hughes’ report is due this Thursday, Feb 23rd.   Simpson says once she has the report, “Clark may look to pin NDP leader Adrian Dix down on whether he would or would not give public sector unions extravagant wage increases. Then she can tell British Columbians Adrian will break the bank while we are fiscally prudent.” Time for an election.

Simpson says he’s not surprised Clark and northern MLAs Pat Bell, Shirley Bond and John Rustad are refusing public comment on the Enbridge Northern Gateway pipeline proposal, even though constituents are rising up in great numbers against what they feel is an attack on their way of life. Simpson says “the provincial polls don’t favour Enbridge and its clear what the position of those along Highway 16 is.”

He says it’s almost amusing to see the positions of Prime Minister Harper and Premier Clark. Simpson says on the one hand Harper is over in China selling the pipeline likes it’s a done deal when he’s supposed to be waiting for the outcome of the NEB hearings into the matter. On the other hand Clark “doesn’t want to come out in favour of something that 70% of British Columbians are opposed to.” He says Clark is cringing at having to take a position and her stand on the pipeline proposal is purely political.

Simpson says Clark’s new Chief of Staff and former Conservative campaigner Ken Boessenkool is wasting no time clearing the cupboards in the Liberal camp. He points to last week’s firing of Clark’s press secretary Chris Olsen and yesterday’s demotion of assistant press secretary Shayne Mills.

Sunday, February 19, 2012 – 9:30 AM

Greg Fry Williams Lake

Bob Simpson says Victoria is making strides when it comes to the issue of predator control in the Cariboo.

Here the Independent Cariboo North MLA explains: “I think we’re making progress to be fair. There was an appeal ruling just recently that allowed us to get some leverage to get other than conservation officers involved in predator control, the ministry is involved in getting some  people trained up and available to do predator control so there have been some changes recently but it remains to be seen whether that’s going to be effective enough.”

The issue of predator control has gained prominence recently due to the increase of predators like cougars and wolves in the region.

Justine Hunter
VICTORIA— From Monday’s Globe and Mail
Published Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012 7:50PM EST
Last updated Sunday, Feb. 19, 2012 7:52PM EST

The B.C. government is not adequately keeping track of its inventory of timber lands, according to NDP Leader Adrian Dix. And that means the province is putting off some tough decisions, he says, on managing what’s left of pine-beetle-ravaged forests.

While the mountain pine beetle has been devastating millions of hectares of land earmarked for timber harvest, the government’s grasp on what is left of the forest resource is slipping.
More related to this story

A third of the government’s inventory of timber lands is at least 17 years out of date, the Ministry of Forests confirms. That makes it impossible to accurately establish the so-called falldown – the point at which mills in the B.C. Interior start to run out of logs after processing today’s pine-beetle-killed timber.

“The government’s position is they don’t know and they don’t want to know,” said Mr. Dix. “It’s absolutely going to devalue the forests for the next generation – it’s making the turn we will have to make in forest policy even harder.”

At the same time, the province is falling behind on its targets to replant forests ravaged by pests, disease and fire. Last week, a report from the Auditor-General found that the government’s reforestation program, Forests for Tomorrow, has replanted a little better than 8,700 hectares a year over the past five years. That’s far short of the plan to plant 22,000 hectares a year.

At that rate, it would take 85 years to replant all the land that is known to be due for replanting.

Al Gorley, chair of the independent Forest Practices Board, believes the amount of land that the government should be planting is at least double the amount identified in the government inventory.

“There is a lot of uncertainty. We made an initial estimate of around two million hectares,” he said in an interview. The board will deliver a report this spring that aims to confirm the backlog and identify how much really needs to be replanted.

“We’re doing it because there seems to be some confusion about the numbers,” Mr. Gorley said.

The issue of the timber supply was brought into the spotlight last month after a deadly explosion destroyed the main sawmill in Burns Lake. The mill’s owners won’t commit to rebuilding unless the government can promise a steady supply of timber.

But the government is expecting a precipitous drop in timber supply in the Interior, according to Ministry of Forests data dated Dec. 31. The “mid-term timber supply” data shows the volume of trees to be harvested dropping by roughly a third over the next two decades.

Bob Simpson, the independent MLA for Cariboo North and a former forest industry manager, said the government needs to restore cuts that were made to the forest service so that it can provide solid answers about the future of the timber supply.

“We can’t tell the people of Burns Lake whether logs exist to warrant rebuilding that mill – the government’s inventory of the forests is so bankrupt we can’t understand what is happening on the ground,” Mr. Simpson said. “It’s time we surveyed the land base so we can say what is actually available there to support a forest industry in the future.”

In a report last week, B.C.’s Auditor-General found weaknesses in the province’s management of its forest resource. “Existing management practices are insufficient to offset a trend toward future forests having a lower timber supply and less species diversity in some areas.”

The audit found a growing area of under-stocked forest – the province has increasingly relied on nature to regenerate forests wiped out by fire and pests. “These trends suggest that long-term timber benefits and forest resiliency are being eroded.”

Forests Minister Steve Thomson disputed the auditor’s findings, although in an interview he acknowledged he does not know how big a gap exists between what needs to be replanted, and what hasn’t been replanted.

Of the 22 million hectares of forest land that is designated for timber harvesting in B.C., he said the government knows of about 733,000 hectares that are in need of replanting. “That’s what we know,” Mr. Thomson said. “We agree the number is somewhat higher. But it’s all speculation until we do the inventory work. There is work being done to identify additional land that will need reforestation.”

By Les Leyne, Times Colonist February 18, 2012 3:54 AM

The ravages of age usually affect people more than institutions.

But successive reports on two of the oldest government functions in B.C. have found they are in failing health.

A searching look last week at the justice system – a ministry since 1871 – portrayed it as floundering badly.

And this week auditor general John Doyle gave the Forests Ministry’s timber management a once-over on the occasion of the ministry’s 100th anniversary.

The report is about what you’d expect of any examination of a centenarian – it’s confused, helpless and a shadow of its former self.

Independent MLA Bob Simpson was a bit more polite in a little anniversary message he delivered in the legislature. He said the ministry was created after an inquiry commission warned: “Forest policy that vacillates, not because fresh knowledge of forests has been obtained but simply because changes have taken place in politics, can have no value.”

So the standalone ministry was created to deliver wise management and feed the growing lumber industry.

A hundred years later, mills can’t find logs, large chunks of B.C. have no more mills, other huge chunks have forest killed by beetles and revenue from the trees doesn’t even cover the cost of administering the resource (even though those costs have been slashed to the core).

Simpson said the forest service’s future is as uncertain as the future of the forest itself.

Doyle’s report is more specific but just as bleak. You barely have to open the document before a sinking feeling develops. The first recommendation is that the ministry “develop a plan.”

It’s a 100-year-old institution responsible for the most obvious, prevalent and valuable natural resource in the province, and an independent look finds it doesn’t have a plan.

The ministry disputes that, pointing to legislated requirements and stewardship principles.

But there is a lengthening list of independent reports detailing the results of management fall-downs over the years as the ministry was bled dry of resources and staff.

Another is expected next week from the Forest Practices Board.

Doyle asked three simple questions: Are forest objectives clearly defined?

Are management practices in place to achieve the objectives? Does the ministry appropriately monitor and report results against objectives?

His answers are: No, no and no. The ministry counters part of his findings by citing “Forests for Tomorrow,” a replanting program aimed at not-satisfactorily restocked land. It cites millions of seedlings, because the numbers sound impressive. But Doyle counts hectares replanted, which is below what was expected.

And even the ministry notes an important qualifier.

“The appropriate level of government investment in silviculture in the future will continue to be determined in the context of available funding and relative priority to other government investments.”

That’s the catch that seems to have tripped up the ministry years ago and is still holding it back today.

Somewhere along the way, forest health slipped out of the public consciousness as an issue and fell down the government priority list.

Maybe it’s a direct economic link. The industry has been more down than up for the last 20 years. Even when it’s profitable, its employment levels are down. So there’s no drive to invest in a resource that isn’t producing the benefits it once did.

The government legally excused itself from the requirement to replant areas disturbed by natural occurrences a full 10 years ago. Then it divested some stewardship of responsibilities on logged land to industry.

Maybe it’s the rural-urban split on political priorities. There’s a lot more payback in building a new bridge or school than there is in replanting thousands of hectares of scrub land in the middle of nowhere.

Maybe it’s the simple explanation that the Health Ministry consumes all the revenue it needs and everything else gets leftovers.

Whatever the case, Doyle found the area of understocked forest is growing and the timber potential and forest resiliency is being eroded. And the Forests Ministry doesn’t have much of a grasp on the problem.

Just So You Know: The auditor general said that in the last two years, ministry estimates show “wildfires affected more than three times as many hectares as the area harvested annually.”

When forests are burning down faster than we can log them, and there’s no legal obligation to replant the fire loss, B.C. has a problem that should be higher up the priority list.

lleyne@timescolonist.com
© Copyright (c) The Victoria Times Colonist

By Tom Fletcher – BC Local News
Published: February 16, 2012 3:00 PM
Updated: February 16, 2012 3:58 PM

VICTORIA – The B.C. government doesn’t have enough information about its forest management to deal with the long-term results of widespread beetle kill and fires, B.C. Auditor General John Doyle concludes in a report released Thursday.

Doyle’s report also criticizes the province’s shift of responsibility for replanting logged Crown land from the ministry to logging companies.

Since 2004, logging companies have been responsible for replacement trees until they reach “free growing” height, which takes seven to 20 years depending on species. The audit found the policy tends to reduce species diversity.

“Reforestation is a cost to forest companies, not an investment,” Doyle writes. “In managing their business, forest companies tend to take the least-cost, least-risk approach to meet reforestation regulations, which means planting lower-cost, faster-growing species.”

Doyle also concluded that the forests ministry has fallen behind in a long-standing commitment to reforest areas damaged by natural disturbances before 1987, when industry first became responsible for replacing harvested areas.

Opposition MLAs pressed Forests Minister Steve Thomson in the legislature Thursday.

“The ministry is degrading the forest,” said NDP forests critic Norm Macdonald.

Thomson replied that the government has invested $236 million in its Forests for Tomorrow program since 2005, when it was set up in response to the pine beetle epidemic in the B.C. Interior. That program calls for 14.5 million seedlings to be planted in 2012-13 and another 21.5 million in 2013-14.

Speaking to reporters, Thomson rejected Doyle’s conclusion that the ministry is falling behind in reforestation. But he acknowledged that the current estimate of 733,000 hectares “not satisfactorily restocked” is likely to be revised upward once an ongoing update of B.C. forest inventory is complete.

“We’re working through the harvesting of the mountain pine beetle,” Thomson said. “What we have to do is make sure that we know where areas are being harvested or not harvested before we go in and do the reforestation work, because we don’t want to put resources into areas that still need to be available for potential salvage harvesting.”

Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson said the auditor’s findings show why the government does not know whether there is sufficient timber supply in northwestern B.C. to justify the reconstruction of the Burns Lake sawmill that was destroyed by fire in January.