‘Meaningless Gesture’ Won’t Help Forest-Dependent Communities
VICTORIA – The B.C. Liberals’ ‘wood first’ legislation is a meaningless gesture which carries no real requirements and will offer no real help to forest-dependent communities, say the New Democrats.
The Wood First Act, introduced Tuesday morning, consists of five clauses, none of 
Norm Macdonaldwhich requires the provincial or local governments to actually build with wood.
“The act is window dressing,” said New Democrat forest critic Norm Macdonald . “It will accomplish nothing.
“It’s a symbolic gesture, which is sadly symptomatic of what the B.C. Liberals are all about. They produce empty symbols instead of putting forward real solutions to fix the crisis in the forest industry.”
Since early 2007, more than 50 mills have shut down and tens of thousands of jobs have been lost.
“The crisis in the forest industry has been going on for years, and the one action the government takes has been to put forward a bill that doesn’t require anyone to use one stick of lumber,” said New Democrat MLA Bill Routley , the opposition deputy forest critic.
Bill RoutleyUnder the Campbell government, B.C. has had the worst rate of full-time job losses, the second-worst performing economy, and highest level of child poverty in the country. Last year, New Democrat Leader Carole James unveiled a five-point plan to renew and modernize the forest industry. The plan includes: developing a green forest plan, developing an innovative and diverse industry, community and worker stabilization funding, a permanent commission on forestry and tenure reform.
“Long-term revitalization of forestry will require real action from the government,” said Routley. “Empty gestures like this act will not help the thousands of forest workers and their families.”
Carole James and the New Democrats have been holding the B.C. Liberals accountable for breaking their word on the HST, and for backtracking on their election promises to protect health care, education, and other vital services.
