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BC Forest Industry The Need to Resolve the Crisis in a Manner that Favours the PeopleThe big companies that dominate most of the BC forest industry, especially those taking timber from public land, are laying off workers and even permanently shutting sawmills in both the Interior and Coastal regions.The social forces in control have refused to deal with the problems in that sector of the economy in a manner that favours the people. They show no concern for finding a new direction for the forest industry that brings stability for working people and their communities and that humanizes the natural and social environment.
The Globe and Mail writes, "In recent years, the province [BC] incentivized companies to ramp up production and revamp mills to clear forest ravaged by the devastating pine beetle infestation. That work is pretty much done now, with the amount of timber that companies are allowed to cut annually reduced along with it. The market in the United States, meantime, which had helped BC companies reap record returns last year, has fallen dramatically .... For years now, forest companies have been shipping two-by-fours out the door and getting the best price possible for them. That was being done, however, against the advice of many who saw the writing on the wall and believed the industry needed to be transitioning from a volume-based model to one favouring value instead." The Globe then quotes BC Premier Horgan as objecting to what the forest companies have been doing: "'Some companies have taken decisions recently that are going to be devastating for some communities and we need to be prepared for that. There is no magic solution to overcut and under supply of fibre. We need to find ways to take the fibre we have and do more with it. On the coast, we've been exporting logs at an unprecedented rate which is insane.' The Premier said people he talks to in the industry think that strategy is 'criminal.' He added: 'Those logs belong to British Columbia and they're being sent off as quickly as possible for shareholder profits.'"
How those "record returns" and "shareholder profits" are
invested is integral to solving problems both in the sector and in the
broad economy, and charting a new economic direction without recurring
crises. For that to happen the working people are striving for economic
and political empowerment in various ways so they can establish control
over their lives and introduce a direction for the economy that favours
them and guarantees their well-being and security. As a first step,
they are laying claim to what belongs to them by right and opposing the
empty rhetoric of those who govern in their name. Only the working
class through its own institutions, its own thinking and organized
efforts can chart and bring about a new direction. (Photos: WF, PPWC)
This article was published in Article Link:   Website: www.cpcml.ca Email: editor@cpcml.ca |
The big forest companies
have long relied on the U.S. market as the main consumer of BC lumber
commodities but that direction has proven to be insecure and crisis
ridden. The aggressive trade agenda of the U.S. imperialists in
collusion with big companies in Canada are using U.S. softwood lumber
tariffs to raise prices and profits in the
U.S. and drive smaller competitors out of business. The situation in
Canada has worsened with the big companies using the social wealth
workers produce to eliminate workers through technological change and
to expand forestry operations in the United States. Interfor, Canfor,
and West Fraser now own more mills in the U.S. than in Canada.
Some point out that the BC government itself has provided these
companies with extra revenue to accomplish that through pay-the-rich
schemes such as incentives to harvest pine beetle damaged timber.
Should one not say as well
that the decisions "devastating to some communities" for the benefit of
"shareholder profits" arise from an outdated economic aim bereft of any
social responsibility, and an economic form that no longer conforms to
the modern socialized conditions.