Whereas billions of dollars of forest industry investment sits idle or is under-utilized in the Province of British Columbia, particularly on Vancouver Island; And whereas 805 million of unprocessed logs were exported from British Columbia in 2017, compared to 278 million exported in 2008, forgoing the opportunity to add value to and create local jobs in this provinces forestry sector: Therefore be it resolved that the Province enact policy that prohibits raw log export from British Columbia without provincial wood processing needs and capacity being evaluated and met.
Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development The Forest Act currently requires that all timber be manufactured within the province, unless it is provided an exemption. Logs that are exported are generally provided an exemption after being deemed surplus to the needs of domestic manufacturers after having been advertised for sale to domestic mills and receiving no offers. Our governments objective is to create more good paying jobs in BCs forest sector. As part of the Coast Revitalization initiative, we are re-examining log export policies to ensure we achieve a balance of meeting domestic manufacturing needs and supporting harvest in areas that rely on the export market for economic viability. The volume of logs exported from Crown land in 2018 was down compared to 2017, while harvest levels were higher.