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NDP forestry plan: Curb log exports, invest in value-added manufacturing

B.C.
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The NDP staged party leader John Horgan's announcement next to the Brock Commons student-housing complex at the University of B.C., currently the world's tallest mass-timber building using advanced engineered-wood components.

B.C. NDP opposition leader John Horgan released a forestry plan Monday that is long on ambitions for curbing log exports and investing in value-added manufacturing to create jobs, but short on details about how an NDP government would accomplish them.

And in addition to general statements about the party’s ambitions, the NDP’s plan highlighted the record of mill closures and job losses that have happened in the forestry industry over the last decade-and-a-half.

“In the last 16 years, Christy Clark and the B.C. Liberals have killed 30,000 forestry jobs and closed 100 mills, hurting people and communities across the province,” Horgan said in a news release.

By contrast, Horgan said an NDP government would focus on job creation by supporting the development of new engineered wood products for use in construction and help create markets for such products starting with the province’s own infrastructure projects.

The NDP staged Horgan’s announcement next to the Brock Commons student-housing complex at the University of B.C., currently the world’s tallest mass-timber building using advanced engineered-wood components.

“By supporting and growing this kind of innovation, we can kickstart a made-in-B.C. manufacturing industry,” Horgan said.

In the four-page plan, the NDP vows to:

• Work with B.C.’s forest industry “to find fair and lasting solutions” to prevent log exports so that more timber is processed in B.C.

• Maximize the use of innovative B.C. wood products in infrastructure projects and ask the federal government to do the same.

• Work with industry, local governments and First Nations to expand wood manufacturing.

• Work with B.C.’s forest industry and research organizations to expand efforts to market B.C. wood products to the world.

• Expand spending on reforestation across the province to create jobs and “ensure the success of B.C.’s forest industry for the long term.”

• Stand up for B.C. wood products in softwood lumber negotiations with the U.S. and “fight hard for a fair deal” that protects jobs.