Government Responds to BCGEU Questions on Resource Ministry Permit Backlogs

As BCGEU members in the resource sector know all too well, the hard reality of more than a decade of sustained budget cuts and staff layoffs have created significant permit backlogs requested in the various ministries.

“The BCGEU believes government must address these backlogs caused by staff shortages and begin to recover the lost economic revenues which they represent,” said Darryl Walker, President of the BCGEU.

The lack of staff resources has created a situation where even a former BC Liberal government minister and a business ally have stated that the government does not have adequate resources to ensure that essential permitting and assessment processes are maintained.

Last fall, the BCGEU filed a request under the under the Freedom of Information Act to obtain the details of the backlog. In response to this request, the government acknowledged a total of 7,000 permits backlogged in the resource ministries.

Since that time, the BCGEU has been seeking details around the allocation and impacts of the new funding announced for the resource sector by Premier Clark .We have been seeking information about the number of staff which have been hired to address the backlog and an update on the size of the backlog itself seeking this information to determine whether the allocation of $24 million in new funding for the sector is adequate to address the backlog.

Front line BCGEU staff hiring underway

In response to BCGEU requests the Ministry of Forests Lands and Natural Resource Operations – FLNRO – has provided the following summary of hiring of BCGEU members as of the end of January.

The BCGEU will continue to monitor hiring. We are seeking similar information from the other resource ministries.

Government updates permit backlog progress

This week the government provided an update, for the first time since the BCGEU information request, on progress made to date in addressing some of the backlog. A total of 462 permits have been addressed out of a starting total of nearly 7000 as detailed below:

We are seeking clarification from government to determine if the current status numbers include applications which have been made since last fall.
The deputy minister of FLNRO told ministry staff last fall about three targets for the Ministry:

• Reduce backlog of Notices of Work applications by 80 percent over the next year
• Maintain an average 60-day turnaround for all new mining Notice of Work applications from 2013 onwards.
• Reduce backlog of Water and Land Act tenures by 50 percent over the next 18 months

The temporary funding of $ 24 million to deal with permit backlogs is welcome. The resource ministries face budget reductions totaling $86 million during the coming three fiscal years, according to our analysis contained in our budget submission this year. The temporary funding promised by government, though welcome, does not come close to repairing the damage these cuts continue to inflict on Government revenues.

Status of FLNRO Review

In March of this year, the B.C. Government announced a review of the Ministry of Natural Resource Operations structure (now the Ministry of Forests, Lands and Natural Resource Operations [FLNRO]).

MLA Randy Hawes was appointed as Parliamentary Secretary to carry out the review.

On October 11, BCGEU president Darryl Walker wrote to MLA Hawes requesting an update on the review process, and asking if the results would be shared with the union.

In a November 3rd letter to Walker, Hawes stated that he was “hopeful of finalizing a report within a few weeks,” and noted that the process has been “much more complicated and challenging than I first imagined.”

To date we have not heard more on the status of this review but have asked for an update.