Staffing cuts erode public accountability in the Forests Ministry's Compliance and Enforcement Program

Annual reports haven't been published for two years due to lack of staff

Over 1,000 staff  have been cut from the Ministry of Forests (now the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations, or FLNRO) in the past decade. Although the remaining forest service personnel have worked hard to maintain the level of service provided by the Ministry, the cuts have simply been too deep, and a lack of staff means that important work- including providing timely information to the public- is often simply not being done.

For example: the Ministry's compliance and enforcement program is tasked with monitoring and enforcing compliance with Forests and Range regulations. This work is critical to ensure that operators are complying with resource laws, and in supporting public confidence that proper oversight of our forests is being provided.

However, the BCGEU has learned that the forest ministry's compliance and enforcement program has not produced annual reports for the past two years (2009-10 and 2010-11). It is now more than 20 months since the end of the fiscal year for 2009-10, and 8 months since the end of the 2010-11 fiscal year.

The BCGEU has been requesting these reports from the Ministry for several months, but the union has been told that they have not yet been produced because of a lack of staff. The inability of the Ministry to produce annual reports for the public about their work in a timely manner is a serious erosion of the Ministry's responsibility to be accountable to the public - just one example of the real impact that more than a decade of staff cuts have had on  B.C.'s Forest Service.