Greens set ‘strategy to build resilience’ in resource sectors

The B.C. Green party would restrict log exports, encourage innovation in value-added wood manufacturing and build consideration for climate change into the sustainable management of natural resources, leader Andrew Weaver said in unveiling his party’s latest platform plank.

The party’s “strategy to build resilience” in resource sectors is about making sure everyone benefits from both sustainable resource use and a healthy environment, Weaver said at an event at Thompson Rivers University in Kamloops.

“We need an economy that identifies the challenges and develops strategies to mitigate risk,” Weaver said, standing alongside Dan Hines, the Green candidate for Kamloops-North Thompson and spokesman on forestry.

The Greens’ strategy leans heavily on beefing up environmental monitoring and enforcement while promising to work with resource companies on strategies to build climate-risk management into resource planning to promote “long-term economic and environmental sustainability.” Weaver said the party would:

Establish a resource-sectorwide compliance and enforcement unit, which will have an additional $20 million for inspections and enforcement.

Rebuild the scientific capability of B.C.’s public service, which Weaver said has been slashed since 2001 by the B.C. Liberals.

Re-establish the integrity of B.C.’s Environmental Assessment Office giving it clear criteria for decisions that factor cumulative impacts of projects into decisions.

Enact a modern “evidence-based” B.C. forest and range act emphasizing reforestation, forest productivity, habitat restoration and addressing First Nations rights.

Establish a natural-resource commissioner to head a natural resources board, which would be independent of government and be responsible for establishing sustainable forest harvest and resource extraction levels.

Develop an old-growth forest inventory and apply the “precautionary principle” to timber-supply reviews that focus on sustainable resource management.

Eliminate the provincial sales tax on the purchase of new mill equipment to encourage modernization and new investment in facilities.

The B.C. NDP platform hits on some of the same points as the Green party when it comes to focusing on value-added lumber manufacturing and curbing log exports.

The B.C. Liberal platform focuses on maintaining the competitiveness of the province’s resource industries promising to continue diversifying markets and support the development of new mines and mine expansions in the province.

Weaver, however, argued that the B.C. Liberals’ economic strategy emphasizes short-term corporate profits at the expense of environmental sustainability and longterm health of resource dependent communities.

“A sustainable economy must also be a resilient economy,” Weaver said. “We need an economy that identifies the challenges we face and develops strategies to mitigate risk.”