By Cheryl Jahn

Premier David Eby addresses COFI

Premier David Eby addresses COFI

Apr 14, 2023 | 3:30 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Premier David Eby made the trek to Prince George to address hundreds at the Council of Forest Industries, the first time it has been hosted in Prince George since COVID.

In recent years, the forest sector has been hit with reductions to the Annual Allowable Cut, natural disasters, old growth deferrals and the list goes on. The message to government at this conference?

“I’ve been in this industry for 45 years and what I look for is predictability,” says Nick Arkle, President of Gorman Bros Lumber. “I think that’s what we’re looking for. And I’ve heard the Premier use that term as well. What we need is a predictable understanding what the future looks like. Then we can make our plans and then we can make investment plans.”

It’s a message the Premier heard loud and clear and vows to enable it.

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“Our goal as a government is to help deliver that. There are lots of challenges to that. We’ve had wildfire. We’ve had the end of the beetle-killed wood. We’ve had court decisions that have resulted in injunctions around issuing permits., and so when you combine that, the solution going forward is partnership. We have land use planning processes that are underway across the province, including First Nations, industry and community and working with the sector coming here today.”

And the acronyms on everyone’s lips these days are UNDRIP and DRIPA. Having First Nations at the table in the sector is unquestionable.

“We need to have everyone at the table. And in my mind, it has to be the right people. People who are held accountable for what they’re saying, how they’re saying it, and the information they’re putting out there, because it’s too important to get wrong. And so whether it is dripper and whether it is old growth, whether it’s caribou. So many things coming at us right now. It’s one of the priorities. Get the right people in the room.”

With lumber prices fluctuating wildly to competition from abroad, climate change amongst other things, the Premier referred to it as a perfect storm for the sector at this time. Regardless, though, there is a sense of optimism.

“And I think it’s on a macro level, micro level,” says Arkle. “So the macro level is the future is really good for the forest industry. There’s going to be a large demand for lumber in the future. People are building houses, they’re renovating, they’re doing all the things with populations growing and there’s a limited amount of trees.”

During his presentation to COFI, Premier Eby recognized the importance of access to fibre supply and assured there is work underway to address that urgency.