Our last kick at the can? Forests and logs, chipping and shipping.
Friday February26th marks the deadline for locals to submit to the Minister of Forests regarding a proposed Transfer of Tenure from Canfor Forest Products to Peak Renewables.
The following provides some points to ponder.
What we Know:
We know a pellet plant is proposed that would be the largest in Canada and the only plant in the Country to utilize live tree-length trees rather than forest industry waste as inputs to produce 600,000 tonnes per year of product. This as a volume is almost double that of the next largest pellet plant in BC which produces 380,000 tonnes annually.
We know Canada has strong environmental pressure to preserve the boreal forest as a global carbon sink.
We know the pellet corporation has entered into an agreement to purchase a 15-year extendible Forest Tenure from Canfor Forest Products with an Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) of about 550,000 m3 (coniferous-leading: that is, spruce, pine and fir) and that there is no provision for the community or others, beyond this application for Transfer, for consultation or input on this tenure after the transfer is finalized.
We know the pellet corporation entered into an agreement to purchase from Canfor, then sold, the contents/equipment of Fort Nelson’s OSB plant for the operation of an OSB plant in Saskatchewan. We have the highest grade OSB-useful fibre, arguably, in the world.
We know the pellet corporation wants access to approximately 2 million m3 of a 2.5 million m3 total Allowable Annual Cut. We know the remaining 20% of the total AAC (500,000 m3) remains under the jurisdiction of BC Timber Sales, whose volumes are sold by competitive bid to anyone within the province and are not required to be milled in their community of harvest.
We know the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality’s Forestry Committee, in place for many years, was disbanded prior to the submission of this current business proposal for the community.
What we don’t know:
We don’t know if raw logs will be exported if no pellet mill materializes.
We don’t know if the pellet plant will pass an environmental review.
We don’t know if it is an environmentally sustainable management plan in the Fort Nelson Timber Supply Area for the pellet plant to cut the 2 million m3 of forest to meet its production needs. That volume is almost double the combined annual harvest conducted in any previous period in Fort Nelson’s forest industry history by the four major forestry operations located here at that time. So, we need to know the full management plan for this massive allocation of our forest.
We don’t know if the pellet plant will be able to secure the 2 million m3 fibre supply needed to sustain such a venture.
We don’t know if the railway or the highway can withstand the volume of freight/traffic generated by the 600,000 tonnes-per-year operation.
We don’t know why an OSB plant can be viable in Saskatchewan and not in Fort Nelson which has better fibre and is closer to markets. So, we don’t know if this waste-based business model is the “highest and best use” of the resource as is mandated by the Ministry of Forests.
We don’t know why the construction of a pellet plant requires, as its first step, the purchase of a forest tenure that includes primarily prime marketable timber – saw-logs and peelers.
We don’t know why the pellet plant needs to pay $30 million for a coniferous-leading (spruce, pine, fir) tenure it won’t use much of when there is ample volume of ‘free’ fibre resource available to meet all the needs of the pellet plant.
We don’t know if there is a concrete commitment, either legal or financial, to the community that the pellet plant will be built.
We don’t know if there will be enough Allowable Annual Cut left over after Peak’s attachments to prevent a ‘de facto’ monopolistic situation similar to the one we found ourselves in, to the extreme detriment of the community, in 2007. What will tying up the significant majority of the forest by one proponent do to future interest by other potential industries?
We don’t know if the newly determined and greatly expanded 2.5 million m3 total Allowable Annual Cut for the region is sustainable. It was recently increased from 1.6 million m3 to 2.5 million, a dramatic increase that has never been tested. Is a changeable political climate and competing interests for the land from possible caribou protections, new parks, and temporary allocations – due to 12 years of undercut – going to affect the Province’s ability to commit 80% of this untested allocation to one operator? Is this environmentally and fiscally dangerous?
While we are desperate for any economic activity for our community, are we being seduced by the offer of jobs without really studying what appears to be the serious risks of the proposal. This is a heck of a situation to leave a community in; it’s like walking in quicksand that leaves a panicky feeling in the stomach as we are asked to blindly “trust” while we gamble with the future of our grandchildren and the sustainability of this tiny community, the sole community in the northern 10% of the province charged with acting as a beacon of support, service and safety along 600 miles of virtually deserted highway in a regional area the size of Nova Scotia. Premier Horgan has committed to “re-attach forest resources to communities” and we need our provincial government to give us time to nail down this proponent on some of the unknowns regarding this transfer deal; and we need time to require our Municipal Authority to rekindle its mandate to take up the fiduciary responsibility it owes to its residents before we hand over the keys to the castle. This is about us and we deserve to know.
Submissions can be made at:
Or call the Forest Tenures Branch at 778-974-2475, email ForestTenuresBranch@gov.bc.ca for more information.
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