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Exporting Logs & Labour

Too much BC timber & logs being exported:
Another angle on the 'not-enough-timber argument' is that too much timber is being exported as BC exports logs, wood fibre and cut wood to China and Japan in large quantities.

This article Raw Log Exports: A Made-in-BC Problem that's Only Getting Worse (2015) describes how BC log exports have grown exponentially since 2000, and "is facilitated by a provincial government that lacks the courage to address its failings".

By exporting these large amounts, they deprive mills here in BC of available fibre, they put pressure on the environment to secure more wood, and they undermine employment in BC.

In 1997, for example, less than 200,000 cubic metres of B.C. timber was exported in raw form (1 cubic metre = approx 1 city telephone pole).
For the past three years, raw log shipments have exceeded 5.5 million cubic metres annually.
In just five years, from 2009 to 2013, annual raw log exports jumped from under 2.5 million to well over 6.5 million cubic metres.
To put that in perspective: a standard logging truck can hold around 40 cubic metres of timber. A standard single family home contains about 37 cubic metres of wood. So, in 2014 alone, B.C. exported enough wood to fill 147,250 logging trucks or build over 159,000 homes.

Tall Cedars. ©S.Chamberlain 2016

Exporting logs reduces their social and economic value:

Why the huge increase in raw log exports? Has the value of raw logs in foreign markets skyrocketed?

The data from BC Stats shows the exact opposite: raw log prices have fallen by almost 50 per cent in the last 15 years.
Almost 97 per cent of all Canadian raw log exports come from B.C. -- the amount shipped by any other province is negligible. Because we export so many more raw logs than other provinces, we're getting a fraction of the return and a fraction of the jobs that they do.
To create one full-time job for a year, Ontario needs to harvest 292 cubic metres of wood -- between 7 and 8 logging trucks full. On average, each of those cubic metres provides $839 to the provincial economy.
In B.C., one full-time year-round job requires 1,312 cubic metres (almost 33 logging trucks). Each of those cubic metres, on average, brings in only $233.

And exported BC wood in 2019?
It looks like business as usual with seemingly very little difference from preceding years.  The Ministry of Forests states in their current  Service Plan that they led "... the largest ever forest sector trade mission to Asia to expand markets for B.C. woodproducts."  www.bcbudget.gov.bc.ca/2019/sp/pdf/ministry/flnr.pdf

Employment Statistics
This was recently, once attached to a BC MLA's emails:

It's OK to print this e-mail.  Paper is a biodegradable, renewable, sustainable product made from trees. Growing and harvesting trees provides jobs for millions of men and women and working forests are good for the environment, providing clean air, clean water, wildlife habitat and carbon storage. Thousands of jobs in sawmills and pulpmills across this province are dependent on the use of paper as well.

In the entire country of Canada, logging and related jobs do not count in the 'millions'. According to BC Statistics, the number is approximately 240,000 employed in all fields related to logging and forestry in Canada.
In BC, according to BC Statistics, jobs related to the industry of Forestry & Related, Wood Product Manufacturing and Paper Manufacturing make up 61,000 jobs of the total BC jobs (2,306,200); which is 2.64% overall in BC.
The BC Government and the Ministry of Forests, Lands & Natural resources agree: "In 2014, British Columbia’s forest sector provided 60,700 direct jobs, mostly in rural communities."

According to WorkBC, the Kootenay Region (East, Boundary and Central- 2013 stats) has a total of 67,600 jobs, with 8% (5,408) of those being spread out in the Forestry, Mining, Oil & Gas, Fishing Hunting and Trapping sector.

Again, there is a discrepancy in the data from the  Council of Forest Industries, "The Voice of the BC Interior Forest Industry".  It states  that "145,000 jobs in BC depend on a healthy forest industry", and 6.25% of jobs in BC are related to the forest industry, which is almost three times the figure that BC Statistics estimate.

Job Losses in the Logging Industry:
When government or the forestry industry responds to concerns about logging in sensitive areas (like watersheds) they all refer to impending job loss in the forest industry -  as if the people with the concerns are to blame for impending job losses. Environmentalists, stakeholders and residents trying to protect their water sources or protect habitat probably have the smallest impact on any impending job losses in the industry. Some of the other factors that are responsible for job losses and mill closures are:

• over-cutting of timber by the forest industry
  
• deficient replanting of trees by the government and forest industry
• reduction of available timber: mountain pine beetle, wildfire damage
• increase in efficiency in mills that eliminates jobs, and increases the need for more wood
• competition between mills for timber and processing
• relaxed regulations: since 2003 the big logging companies in BC, who used to be obligated by the provincial government to operate lumber mills within the province, are no longer required to do so (https://www.wildernesscommittee.org/what_we_do/bc_forestry)
• increase in the use of machinery over the years leading to job losses
• raw log exports
• the profit motivation of logging companies who look only at the dollar figure value and not at the human value of employees
• and politics: In 2012, the BC NDP leader Adrian Dix stated: "The industry has shed more than 30,000 jobs under the BC Liberals and the mismanagement (of the Ministry of Forests) will make it difficult to recover. It means the industry and the forest are worse off in the future." From:  BC Government Killing Forest Industry