Editor:
In your recent article "Details of Forest Act Changes Emerge" readers may be left with the mistaken impression that I am in favour of allowing corporations to roll over their existing Forest Licence agreements with the provincial government into longer-term, area-based Tree Farm Licences (TFLs) (Lake District News, Feb. 27, 2013). This is not the case.
I was among the first writers/commentators in British Columbia to criticize a provincial government plan that would allow corporations to do just that. I argued that such a change would result in de facto privatization of our public forestlands to the benefit of a select few corporations. One clear danger in allowing such a policy to proceed is that as things stand right now companies holding TFLs are under no obligation to operate sawmills or other processing plants. Granting more TFLs to corporations would simply mean, then, that those corporations had tradable assets that could be bought and sold at will to the detriment of numerous communities.
For the record, I have long advocated for more area-based forest tenures for First Nations and communities, a position that I continue to support. That is what I meant when I was quoted in the story as saying that "I am not opposed to area-based licences."
One significant reservation that First Nations and communities should have with the proposed ‘rollover’ legislation is that First Nations and communities will be left on the sidelines as corporate forest licence holders got first dibs on converting those holdings into far more secure TFLs. This is simply bad public policy that would dangerously and unnecessarily drive up settlement costs with First Nations, by requiring huge compensation payouts to corporations – a fact that the provincial government is fully aware of.
Lastly, I am not and never have been a professional forester, but have commented on and analyzed forest policy issues in the province for the past 25 years.
Kind regards,
Ben Parfitt, Victoria B.C.
Resource Policy Analyst, Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives