By Mike Youds
Daily News Staff Reporter

B.C.’s chief forester painted a mountain pine beetle picture both good and bad Thursday for silviculturalists gathered in Kamloops.

The good news is the historic infestation that destroyed Interior pine stands through the middle of the last decade wasn’t as destructive as first feared.

“In 2006, we were projecting a mountain pine beetle kill of 80 per cent of pine by 2013,” Jim Snetsinger told a convention of the Western Silviculture Contractors’ Association. “Our 2011 models . . . now tell us mountain pine beetle will kill about 61 per cent of susceptible pine by 2021.”

Snetsinger was more guarded in his outlook than Interfor’s chief forester, who predicted “a golden era” is at hand.

The bad news, Snetsinger said, is that the beetle continues to kill lots of lodgepole pine. More than half of merchantable pine in the Interior has been lost to date, even though the mortality peaked in 2004-05.

The central region of the province, an area extending from the Kamloops forest district north to Mackenzie, was hardest hit; Merritt Forest District to a lesser degree. A more homogenous forest type, less broken terrain and consistent wind patterns are thought to have been key factors here.

“In the southeast, it hasn’t materialized the way it was projected,” though the infestation continues in the areas of Cranbrook and Invermere, he noted. “The perimeter doesn’t seem to be growing that much.

“Mountain pine beetle is increasing further into the northwest, and I think this is just symptomatic of some of the climate change we’re seeing.”

Other forest pests, such as the spruce bark beetle, spruce budworm and Douglas fir tussock moth, are increasing in the Southern Interior, though to a far lesser degree than pine beetle.

An “uplift” in the annual allowable cut, which has since been scaled back, was intended to enable the industry to harvest beetle-killed timber before its value declined.

As for what remains of the Interior forest industry, Snetsinger was less certain. There are too many variables — harvesting levels, lumber markets and the emergence of the bio-economy — to paint an accurate picture, he said.

A substantial industry opportunity rests with what he termed the mid-term harvest. That spells business for silviculturalists in the business of forest regeneration. Sometime in 2013, the seven billionth tree will be planted in B.C.

“If the economy’s right, if the market cycle is right, if the bio-economy comes on strong, we can harvest that in the next 10 years.”

The bio-economy is not to be confused with bio-fuels, which represent just one facet, said Ric Slaco, chief forester of Interfor.

“From my perspective, we’re in a very interesting time right now,” Slaco said. “I think we’re on the verge of a golden era for our sector.”

The UN has pinpointed sustainable forestry and wood products as the largest single opportunity to mitigate climate change, he said. Trees sequester carbon, forming the basis for the bio-economy. Wood products do the same.

“A lot of people in the general public are not really aware that we have a miracle resource . . . Every time a load of logs is going down the road or into the lumber yard, 50 per cent of that is carbon by weight.”

While investment in research and development is limited in B.C., markets such as China have realized the vast potential of innovative wood products to save energy.

“We’re only in the very early stages of trying to tap into that.”

Addressing climate change a moral imperative, MLA says

The bio-economy is the value-added future of B.C.’s forest sector, an independent MLA said Thursday.

In the new carbon economy, forestry would produce a broad range of fibre-based products including clothing, not just wood products.

“I think we have an obligation to future generations to address this beast known as climate change,” said Bob Simpson, who represents Cariboo North. To not act would be immoral, he added.

“This isn’t optimal; this is a must-do.”

Forestry, together with marine resources and agriculture, represent the province’s strongest potential to create sustainable jobs, he said. There is no so-called “ethical oil” or sustainable mining.

Yet in order to build the new economy, government must take the bull by the horns and show leadership.

He called the existing Pacific Carbon Trust a distortion of public policy that doesn’t effectively foster reductions in carbon emissions overall.

To find out how you can get involved in this process, check out the Fraser Basin Council’s website, or go directly to the HHRA website.

However, the questions surrounding Burns Lakes’ fibre supply are just as imminent in our region as they are in the Lakes Timber Supply Area (TSA), and the government should provide every mountain pine beetle (MPB) affected community with the resources needed to “ground truth” their timber supply projections so we too can know with much greater certainty what our future holds.

The Lakes TSA had a new Annual Allowable Cut (AAC) set by the Chief Forester in July last year, which should mean he has all the available information he needs to answer the question of whether a stable mid-term fibre supply exists to warrant rebuilding the Burns Lake mill. The forest companies and the government have also completed a technical assessment of the Lakes TSA and three other heavily MPB impacted TSA’s (including ours) to determine the effect on available timber of lifting land-use restrictions currently imposed to protect non-timber values.

So, one can be excused for thinking that the Minister and the Chief Forester should have all the information they need to say “yeah” or “nay” to the mid-term timber supply question being asked by the good people of Burns Lake.

The problem is that there is simply too much uncertainty in the government’s forest inventory data, growth and yield projections and the models it uses to predict timber availability and set AACs. Read any one of the Chief Foresters most recent AAC determinations and you’ll quickly see there’s an awful lot that we don’t know about the state of our public forests.

Yet, we desperately need to know what’s really going on in our forests as soon as possible as the falldown in harvesting levels in our area is imminent. How many mills and jobs will we lose simply because we won’t have the logs? When will these closures occur? We have a right to know. Now.

The $800,000 the government spent on partisan advertising for its so-called job’s strategy would have covered the costs of a comprehensive on the ground audit and assessment of the true state of our public forest resources in the MPB region. The government has an obligation to put taxpayer money to better use than pre-positioning for the 2013 election.

Below is the press release from CAPP and be sure to check out the stories on the CBC, Globe and Mail, and Vancouver Sun.

Industry establishes Canada-wide operating practices for shale, tight natural gas hydraulic fracturing

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers today announced new Canada-wide hydraulic fracturing operating practices designed to improve water management and water and fluids reporting for shale gas and tight gas development across Canada.

“The hydraulic fracturing operating practices demonstrate the Canadian natural gas industry’s continued efforts to ensure responsible resource development and protection of Canada’s water resources,” said CAPP President Dave Collyer. “Applying these new operating practices will contribute to improving our environmental performance and transparency over time, both of which contribute to stronger understanding of industry activity and better relationships with the public, stakeholders and government.”

Developed by natural gas producers, the hydraulic fracturing operating practices apply to all CAPP members exploring for and producing natural gas in Canada.

In September 2011, CAPP announced the industry’s Guiding Principles for Hydraulic Fracturing, which obligate CAPP members to sound wellbore construction, fresh water alternatives, recycling where feasible, voluntary water reporting, fracturing fluid disclosure, and technical advancement and collaboration. The operating practices announced today support the guiding principles for hydraulic fracturing and strengthen industry’s focus on continuous performance improvement.

Natural gas from unconventional formations is abundant and found across Canada. CAPP expects the hydraulic fracturing operating practices to inform and complement regulatory requirements.

CAPP Hydraulic Fracturing Operating Practices

Canada’s shale and tight gas industry supports a responsible approach to water management and is committed to continuous performance improvement. Protecting our water resources during sourcing, use and handling is a key priority for our industry. We support and abide by all regulations governing hydraulic fracturing operations, water use and protection.

In addition, we commit to following these operating practices for hydraulic fracturing: 

1. Fracturing Fluid Additive Disclosure

Purpose:To disclose on a well-by-well basis the chemical ingredients in fracturing fluid additives which are identified on Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS) for each additive, including trade names, general purpose and concentrations. This information will be made publicly available.

2. Fracturing Fluid Risk Assessment and Management

Purpose:To better identify and manage the potential health and environmental risks associatedwith fracturing fluid additives and ultimately increase the market demand for more environmentally sound fracturing fluids. The process for developing well-specific risk management plans for hydraulic fracturing fluid additives will be made publicly available.

3. Baseline Groundwater Testing

Purpose:To develop domestic water well sampling programs and to participate in regional groundwater monitoring programs; establish a process for addressing stakeholder concerns regarding water well performance; and to continue to collaborate with government and other industry operators.

4. Wellbore Construction and Quality Assurance

Purpose:To ensure that wellbores are designed and installed in a manner that maintains integrity before hydraulic fracturing begins, including creating a continuous cement barrier to protect groundwater and developing remedial plans in the unlikely event that a wellbore is compromised. Wellbore construction and quality assurance practices will be made publicly available as they relate to this practice.

5. Water Sourcing, Measurement and Reuse

Purpose:To safeguard surface water and groundwater quantity by assessing and measuring water sources, ensuring no withdrawal limits are exceeded, monitoring water sources as required to demonstrate the sustainability of the source; and collecting and reporting water use data. Water measurement, sourcing and reuse practices will be made publicly available.

6. Fluid Transport, Handling, Storage and Disposal

Purpose:To identify, evaluate and mitigate potential risks related to the transport, handling, storage and disposal of fluids (i.e. fracturing fluids, produced water, flowback water and fracturing fluid wastes) and ensure a quick responseto accidental spills. Fluid transport, handling, storage and disposal practices will be made publicly available.

“The establishment of Canada-wide hydraulic fracturing principles and practices is part of the natural gas industry’s ongoing efforts to ensure safe development of Canada’s shale gas resources,” Collyer said. “Shale gas can and is produced responsibly every day across Canada and the United States with almost 200,000 wells fractured in Western Canada over the last 60 years. With increased focus on fracturing from coast-to-coast, the Canadian industry wants to be at the forefront of transparency and to establish clear and consistent practices across the country.”

The Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) represents companies, large and small, that explore for, develop and produce natural gas and crude oil throughout Canada. CAPP’s member companies produce more than 90 per cent of Canada’s natural gas and crude oil. CAPP’s associate members provide a wide range ofservices that support the upstream crude oil and natural gas industry. Together CAPP’s members and associate members are an important part of a national industry with revenues of about $100 billion-a-year. CAPP’s mission is to enhance the economic sustainability of the Canadian upstream petroleum industry in a safe and environmentally and socially responsible manner, through constructive engagement and communication with governments, the public and stakeholders in the communities in which we operate.

For additional information:

Tony McCallum
Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers
(P):  403-267-1142
(M): 403-836-7654
(E):  tony.mccallum@capp.ca

Cariboo North MLA Bob Simpson is alarmed government may lift ‘constraints’ in Land Use Plan: ‘They’re asking for a fight.’

As the government looks for ways to provide more timber to mills in communities affected by the mountain pine beetle kill, it will set precedents for logging companies in other parts of British Columbia, said the MLA for Cariboo North, independent Bob Simpson.

“To me what they’re asking for is a fight,” said Simpson. “I have no problem being upfront and getting shot between the eyes on it, because it’s bullshit.”

The government is considering lifting the “constraints” set out in the Land Use Plan for the Cariboo-Chilcotin, said Simpson.

That plan, in place since 1994 and built on the Commission on Resources and Environment process that dates back to 1992, “incorporates the interests — and meets the needs — of the community and its people,” according to the government’s website.

The result of a long and wide consultation, often credited with diffusing the valley-by-valley war in the woods, it maps out what land is open to forestry and where other values take precedence.

If the government wants to reopen the plan, it should also reopen public discussion and bring in other stakeholders such as mining companies or guide outfitters who will be affected by the decisions, said Simpson. “Why do the timber barons get preeminence?”
AN INDUSTRY CALL TO REVISIT VI LOGGING BALANCE

Les Kiss, the vice president of forestry for the Coast Forest Products Association, left at least some people who heard him speak on a TLA convention panel in mid-January with the impression he favoured opening up the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan.

“We’re not advocating reopening it, it’s more assessing where you’re at,” he clarified in an interview.

The land use plan sets out general measures and defines various enhanced or special zones. “That hasn’t really played out,” he said. “Nobody’s looked before. Nobody’s really monitoring whether it’s met its original objectives.”

Plus there’s the feeling that the plan is already under pressure from all sides. The 2007 Coastal Forest Action Plan found 3.1 million hectares were fully protected while 2.5 million hectares of Crown land were open for timber harvest, he said.

And yet, he said, “There are still pressures to remove more and more land base.”

The decisions need to balance social, environmental and economic objectives, he said, suggesting the economic side hasn’t been given sufficient priority.

While he said the government likely doesn’t have the resources to revisit land use plans, the CFPA is pushing to have a “gatekeeper” approach set up as a pilot project in the area covered by the Vancouver Island Land Use Plan that would change how authorizations and approvals are made, he said.

Asked for specifics of how it would work, he said it is in the early stages and the details are still to be worked out. “We’re doing some preliminary discussion with the ministry,” he said. “It’s not a done deal. We’re hoping it will go off as a pilot.”

And whatever the government does in the Cariboo-Chilcotin, it will be asked to repeat in the rest of the province, he said.

Short term tradeoffs

Timber supply is an issue that gained profile after the burning of the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake earlier this month, with the mill owners saying rebuilding depends on whether “constraints” on the land base can be lifted to increase the amount of wood available, but it has been building for some time.

The Association of B.C. Professional Foresters raised similar concerns to Simpson’s in a November 2011 report expressing the views of its members to Chief Forester Jim Snetsinger.

The organization was responding to a motion the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention passed in 2010 asking the forests minister for a cost-benefit analysis of the “cumulative impacts” of “constraints” like wildlife tree patches and visual quality objectives that are set out in land use plans.

“Our members think in terms of forest maturation cycles of 60 to 100 years,” the report signed by ABCPF CEO Sharon Glover and director professional practice and forest stewardship Mike Larock said. “They do not support making short-term tradeoffs now that would jeopardize non-timber forest management objectives or the midterm timber supply if not supported by scientific research and consultation with the public.”

The existing higher-level plans with their long-term view are still relevant, the report said. “The original reasons for the forest management constraints still apply.”

Even if the government changed the management requirements, mills will still close, it said. “It will just postpone the inevitable fall down in timber supply. There was a concern that the consequences of such forest management decisions would be worse than the benefits derived from an increase in today’s timber supply.”

Patches of wildlife trees and areas managed as old growth would be “extremely difficult to recreate,” in the future, it said.

They too worried that such decision making would spread. “While the provincial government’s work on the midterm timber supply is focused on areas of the province that have been hardest hit by the mountain pine beetle, it is a concern that affects the entire province,” says an accompanying advocacy report from the association. “It is important to consider what impact changing the management objectives or constraints in one area will have on another area.”

Making any such changes requires public consultation “to prevent undesirable outcomes,” it said. “Members pointed out that a gain to one group may be a loss to others and a theme that kept coming up was broad public input must be sought on these issues before decisions are reached on changes to forest management strategies.”

‘Not necessarily’ opening plans: minister

Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations Minister Steve Thomson said in a Jan. 20 interview that despite the talk, there are no immediate plans to open land use plans in the Cariboo-Chilcotin or anywhere else.

“We know that as we address the future of the mountain pine beetle uplift that we have to look at how we address midterm timber supply availability and the future of the industry in that area up through there, and that’s work that’s underway,” he said.

Asked if that meant opening or altering land use plans, he said, “Not necessarily.”

“We’re looking at how we address future security and supply for the industry, but that does not mean opening up land use plans,” he said. “People might interpret it that way, but it’s certainly not the intention.”

The executive director of the Truck Loggers Association, Dave Lewis, acknowledged there’s been recent talk of reopening land use plans. “I know it’s come back on the radar screen,” he said. “I don’t know why that is. I don’t know if it’s people aren’t satisfied.”

Land use plans are part of the discussion in various parts of the province, including Haida Gwaii and the Great Bear Rainforest, he said.

“I don’t think there’s anything that once you make a plan, whether it’s local zoning or it’s land use plans, that ever stay the same,” he said. “The goal posts move very quickly and you’re always going to be opening those up.”

The CORE process was a brilliant move, that gained support for defining what would be operational forest and what would be parks, he said. “I think the key [to opening plans] is you do it in a strategic fashion and if we can do it and create more certainty than we had before, or we can do it and create better opportunities, I’m all for that, so I would never say that once you’ve made a plan you stick with it.”

Communities make rezonings or changes to their official plans all the time, and that’s sensible, he said. “I think they’re doing that in this case.”

Those discussions will involve the public, First Nations and other stakeholders, he said. “I think it’s open to everyone, we’ve just been ahead of the curve.”

Many known unknowns: MLA Simpson

The government may be looking for ways to lift constraints without opening land use plans, since opening plans would require going back to consult the public and other stakeholders, said MLA Simpson.

When logging companies, the UBCM or the government talk about “lifting the constraints on the landbase” it is clear what they have in mind, said Simpson.

The constraints are the zones to protect wildlife, old growth and other values set out in the land use plans, he said. “There are no other constraints on the land base.”

Any move to lift those constraints should be done carefully and in full public view, he said.

The pressure comes at a time when there is much unknown about the state of the province’s forests, Simpson said.

The model for assessing the annual allowable cut has not been substantiated for a long time and it’s possible that climate change has already made it inaccurate, he said. At the same time, a recent forest practices board report found there were reasons to believe the inventory data are also inaccurate, he said.

The government is considering lifting constraints, he said, but “On the basis of what? The data is suspect and the models are suspect.”

It’s a time when government’s forestry decision making should be more conservative, not less, he said.

Big political players will exchange ideas on B.C.’s forest policy at a conference in Kamloops beginning Wednesday.

Jobs, Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell is scheduled to speak Thursday afternoon to the Western Silviculture Contractors’ Association. Chief forester Jim Snetsinger will speak to members the same morning in an event at Coast Kamloops Hotel and Conference Centre Wednesday to Friday.

But in a twist, Opposition leader Adrian Dix will make the keynote address Thursday evening.

John Betts, executive director of the association, said the group is apolitical and is not intending to upstage government ministers by inviting the New Democrat leader as its keynote speaker.

“It looks like a political gaffe… . (But) we’re non-partisan and like to have opinion from across the political spectrum.”

Betts noted a Green party representative has been asked to speak at previous association conferences. The forests minister was not available to attend this year.

About 60 to 100 people are expected to attend the conference, which is looking in part at ways to ensure long-term productivity of B.C.’s forests, particularly in light of mountain pine beetle.

Information compiled by the association shows that despite the fact pine beetle is expected to kill 80 per cent of merchantable pine in B.C., the number of trees being planted has been on a long-term decline.

That appeared to bottom out last year, with an increase in seedling demand this year.

Bob Simpson, independent MLA from South Cariboo and a former forest executive, said the B.C. Liberal government has obscured what’s occurring for restoration of forests by withdrawing funding for surveys and changing criteria.

“It’s difficult to see actual trend lines.”

Simpson said estimates of forests damaged from pine beetle and not sufficiently regrowing range from as little as 700,000 hectares (B.C. Liberal government numbers) to outside foresters who say it’s closer to two million hectares.

Simpson will take part in a panel session on the “bioeconomy,” which includes advocating more use of bioenergy for dead pine forests.

Betts said the decline in tree planting is evidenced by the decline in forest contractors. The association is encouraging the province and local governments to do more fire prevention work in interface areas, through brushing and pruning.

Betts said there is also a sense that following a long downturn in forestry, licensees are earning more and putting it back into land. He also said increased logging of dead stands for bioenergy shows promise.

“That has potential to create another demand (for dead pine). We think it can be used to restore forests.”

My heart goes out to the families of the workers who were killed and injured at the Babine fire. I spent many hours in that mill in my previous job with Weldwood of Canada as Babine was one of our flag ship mills. I wish Minister Bell and community leaders all the best in their endeavours to help the community of Burns Lake adjust and adapt to the loss of this mill.

It needs to be plainly stated that assigning a long term timber supply to Babine in order to get Hampton Affiliates to commit to rebuilding that mill will simply shift the pain of job loss to other communities in the region. The government cannot and must not take steps to secure a long term log supply for Burns Lake simply because their mill burnt down, government must continue to look at the whole picture and make decisions based on potential impacts to all the operations and all the communities in the Mountain Pine Beetle zone.

The issue of securing a long term timber supply for the Babine mill existed before it was gutted by fire. It’s a question for every mill and every community in the 17.4 million hectare mountain pine beetle zone. The timber supply region that surrounds Burns Lake is one of the hardest hit areas, as over three quarters of that timber volume is pine and 90% of that pine has been killed by the mountain pine beetle. According to the Chief Forester, by 2019 the vast majority of that dead pine will no longer be commercially viable (that is, it will be at the end of its 15 year “shelf life”).

Since 2001 the allowable cut for that region has been increased to process this dead pine as quickly as possible. Lock step with these increases in cut levels companies invested capital to increase their manufacturing capacity and new pellet plants have been built. This means that the manufacturing capacity in the region has been built to an abnormally high level of harvest — an unsustainable level of harvest. So, as the cut levels come down from the beetle uplifts and, likely, fall below historic levels of annual allowable harvest rates every mill in the area will struggle to feed their needs and some will have to close or curtail their operations.

We’ve known this day has been coming for ten years — since 2002 when it became evident that this beetle infestation was like no other and would likely wipe out most of the interior pine forest. We only have a few years left to figure out how we’re going to transition a host of forest dependent communities to a dramatically reduced log supply. That’s the real issue government must put considerably more resources to while it provides immediate assistance to the people of Burns Lake. Losing sight of the bigger log supply issue at this time will not serve anyone’s interests in the long term.

justine hunter

VICTORIA— From Friday’s Globe and Mail

Published Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 8:43PM EST

Last updated Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 11:22PM EST

After an explosion destroyed the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake last week, families in the community lit two candles for missing and injured workers. Then they lit a third candle for the mill itself.

Since the mill opened in 1975 as a joint venture with the local first nations, the village has relied on the mill as its prime source of jobs. Amid the grief and anger over the loss of life and the horrific injuries, there is deep anxiety for the future.

B.C. Jobs Minister Pat Bell is set to arrive in the village on Friday to help the community with its “economic transition.” More than anything, the workers and their families want to know how he can convince the mill’s owners, Oregon-based Hampton Affiliates, to rebuild.

But as he drives along Highway 16 toward the village, Mr. Bell can’t ignore what the people of Burns Lake know all too well: The forest around them is dead or dying. This is the epicentre of the pine beetle epidemic. Any company willing to spend $30-million or more to build a new mill will want assurances that the timber will keep coming for decades. And unless the government is prepared to change the rules, such a commitment seems unlikely.

“Hill after hill after hill of red and grey trees” is how MaryAnne Arcand remembers her last drive over resource roads south of Burns Lake. “Some of them just big matchsticks. You feel really vulnerable.”

Ms. Arcand is executive director of the Central Interior Logging Association. In addition to the 280 direct mill jobs, she noted, there are another 500 independent contractors – loggers and truckers – who worked at supplying timber to the mill.

The contractors are not eligible for employment insurance, so she has spent the week drumming up work for them with other employers in the region.

Fortunately for those workers, there are still seven big mills in the area, including Canfor’s Houston operation, which boasts the biggest sawmill output in the world. Ms. Arcand has come up with dozens of jobs already for buncher operators, haulers, skidder operators and stump-to-dump contractors.

Babine Forest Products also has something going for it: the rights to about half a million cubic metres of wood per year that it can sell to the highest bidder. And there is a market for the wood.

But that cash asset is there regardless of whether the owners rebuild. The mills along Highway 16 are already competing for timber. And the falldown – when the annual allowable cut will have to be reduced and the pine beetle-killed wood is no longer merchantable timber – is coming.

The province’s chief forester, Jim Snetsinger, is working on a technical report for Forests Minister Steve Thomson on the timber supply in the mountain pine beetle zones. The review looks at whether the mills in the region can be kept open if B.C. lifts constraints on the land base that were established under the Harcourt government in the 1990s.

“With the urgent situation in Burns Lake, a lot of the work we had been doing for the region is going to be part of that discussion,” Mr. Thomson said in an interview Thursday. “This has accelerated some of the work we need to do.”

The Association of BC Professional Foresters is worried the falldown will lead to an excuse to gut the region’s longstanding land-use plans. In a submission to the chief forester last November, they warned against “making short-term tradeoffs” against the long-term health of these battered forests.

Further, the association is warning that freeing up more timber is not the solution: “Changing management requirements would not prevent mill closures. Rather, it will just postpone the inevitable falldown in timber supply.”

Bob Simpson, the Independent MLA for Cariboo North, said the government can’t stall on this question anymore. “The chief forester and the Forests Minister must immediately answer the question of whether a long-term timber supply exists for this mill,” he said, “so at least this one issue can be clarified in the deliberations about the feasibility of rebuilding the mill.”

A lasting solution – which the people of Burns Lake sorely need – will require confronting the problem that the government has been evading for a decade.

Unlike Premier Campbell when we never knew if the legislature would sit, Premier Clark has posted the full legislative calendar for this year and it shows we’ll have full spring and fall legislative sessions.

Since we did not prorogue the last fall session, Premier Clark’s Throne Speech from the fall carries over and so does some of the outstanding legislation from that session, particularly the Local Government Auditor General Act that has been called into question by the Union of BC Municipalities.

The most interesting aspect of this spring session (which starts on February 14^th) will of course be the budget, which we’ll see on February 21^st. The government continues to send out mixed messages about whether they will or won’t be able to balance the budget in 2013 as currently required by law. The budget tabled this spring will put an end to that speculation, as the government is also not allowed to project a deficit for 2013 and beyond. So, if the budget does show a deficit beyond 2012 then we’ll have to see a Bill this spring giving the government yet another reprieve from balancing the books (it’ll be their third time).

I’ve made my thoughts plain on this: balanced budget legislation is simply political smoke-and-mirrors as it hasn’t been adhered to in any jurisdiction that has it. Rather than amending the existing legislation yet again, I’ll be calling on the government to repeal the legislation in its entirety.

There seems to be pressure to try and get the Resource Roads Act tabled this spring or fall session; however, the government failed to successfully table this act once before and I’m hearing there’s still considerable push back against the current attempt. Likewise, we may see legislative or regulatory changes affecting log exports and land use plans (particularly for the interior to allow access to the mid-term timber supply that’s locked up in the Cariboo-Chilcotin Land Use Plan).

In my estimation, the work on forest policy is being done without sufficient public consultation and I’ve expressed this concern in meetings with Ministers and senior bureaucrats. If the any natural resource legislation is brought forward my office will get as many people involved as possible in scrutinizing it and calling the government to task if it favors corporate interests over those of the public who own these resources.

Prior to February 14^th, I’ll be travelling throughout the riding to hear from constituents about their priorities so I can continue to represent this riding’s interests in Victoria.

in the Canadian Environmental Assessment Agency’s draft environmental impact statement guidelines and the draft terms of reference for the panel reviewing the New Prosperity proposal:

http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/document-eng.cfm?document=54006