Our forests, our water, our environment... Our future is at risk

Public forests; Private masters
The Campbell government has brought in a new Forest and Range Practices Act that appears to have been written by and for multinational corporations. Small businesses, working people and environmental groups with ideas for sustainable changes were shut out of consultations.

No environmental protection
The new legislation contains no minimum standards or environmental regulations. The Minister of Forests claims the changes are about reducing paperwork. As a result, corporations will monitor themselves under laws they’ve written to maximize their own profit.

No public oversight
Whatever regulations are outlined in a revised Forests Practices Code, there can be no real enforcement without the people who do the work. The skilled workers being dismissed are on-the-ground local people who ensured logging was sustainable, endangered species were protected, and proper revenues were collected for harvesting public timber.

We need public stewards...
to protect our land, our resources, our future Over 92 per cent of British Columbia is public land. That’s a wealth of public resources to manage. Forestry and environment workers in the public service make sure our valuable resources are managed and sustained for future generations.