ELECTION 2020: Joint Industry Letter

As British Columbian’s enter the upcoming provincial election, all of us in the forest industry remain dedicated to moving our sector forward and further contributing to the growth and prosperity of our province in terms of jobs and benefits for all concerned.

BC’s forest industry is vital to the well-being of our economy. However, our collective associations share concerns about the state of the sectors’ progress over many decades and improving its overall health. While not all encompassing, the major areas of concern are the overall investment climate; high cost structures; working forest certainty; and level of value extracted from our forests.

We believe it is important for everyone to actively engage with local political candidates and their parties in this election by asking directed questions to ascertain how each of these potential leaders will support the forest industry in the future. More importantly, what actions will they take to improve upon the current situation?

Topical questions could include:

• What actions will you take to further improve BC’s forest-related investment climate?
• What actions will you take to provide more certainty in the long-term availability of the working forest?
• Do you recognize that BC’s overall cost structure in forestry is too high? If so, what initiatives will you undertake to improve it?
• For more than 20 years, successive BC governments have notionally supported the objective of extracting more value out of the fiber harvested in the province. What actions will you take to encourage the further growth of the value-added sector?

Lastly, we would like to affirm this letter is purposefully non-partisan; forest sector issues have accumulated over many decades and political parties. What’s most important is that we collectively move ahead to improve the sector. We hope this letter provides some assistance to you in this regard as you engage all candidates in this election.

Yours truly,