Raw log exports rankle candidates
Quintin Winks, Alberni Valley Times
Published: Thursday, April 30, 2009

B.C. shipping logs overseas is perhaps best symbolized by the sticker of a loaded logging truck with the slogan 'Ban Log Exports' on a road sign near Tofino.
Being in a National Park where the only industry is tourism, and by virtue of spreading the message on a mass-produced sticker on the back of a road sign, is an indicator of how widespread and prominent the issue has become. So it's no surprise that British Columbia's current practice of allowing the shipment of raw logs, bark still attached, to countries overseas for processing is a pressure point in the May 12 provincial election.

The main argument denouncing the practice is that raw logs should be kept in B.C. to be turned into furniture, prefabricated housing and other products known as value added. The theory is that with investments in training and infrastructure, eventually new jobs would be created as companies spring up to use the wood for making a variety of products.

The concern is that scaling back exports would leave a lot of forest industry workers unemployed, so for now B.C. continues to ship its wood to other countries where value-added goods are produced.

That doesn't sit well BC Refederation candidate Dallas Hills. He said that B.C.'s logs should remain in province to be refined, because the practice of exporting is leading to mill closures and job losses.

"We're allowing corporations to come and take our resources and source them out overseas for refining in countries where there are no laws protecting workers," Hills said.