HEYMAN KNOWS HOW TO GET HIS HANDS DIRTY
The first in a series of interviews with B.C.’s new cabinet ministers
George Heyman barely survived six months as a logger in B.C.’s forests, but the experience is part of his first-hand knowledge serving him today as the NDP’s new minister of environment and climate change strategy.
“Many people assume that my background is entirely urban and has nothing to do with actually getting my hands dirty,” he said Wednesday in his first in-depth interview. “Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Vancouver-born Heyman says he was almost killed or seriously injured while working for about six months as a logger.
“I was almost crushed between two logs on which I was setting a choker. The person with the whistle thought I was finished and out on the other side. I managed to duck down just before the logs started moving.”
Heyman left the private logging sector and took the safer job of log scaler with the Ministry of Forests in 1978, eventually working his way up the labour ranks to become union president in 1999.
“When I was logging, many of the practices were wasteful, questionable and showed disrespect and disregard for the environment. I’ve seen those standards change over time.
“Logging is an important part of the fabric of B.C.’s history as well as our economy. The key is to do it sustainably, to ensure we replenish our forests and that we have a sensible approach to maintaining healthy forests and some of the ancient forests that surround us.”
What follows is the remaining interview with Heyman:
Q: What is your view on gas giant Petronas, citing market conditions, not proceeding with the $11.4-billion Pacific NorthWest LNG project near Prince Rupert?
A: If they had not decided to pull out, there were still very significant conditions that an NDP government would have had ... We have said for a long time that the siting was a threat to fisheries and we also said about all LNG projects that they have to provide benefits and jobs for British Columbians, be developed in partnership with First Nations, be done in a way that protects our air, land and water and be done in a way that meets our climate commitments. Any proposals that come forward, those are the conditions.
Q: How will you employ “every tool available” to counter Kinder Morgan’s pipeline expansion?
A: Interprovincial pipelines are largely a federal jurisdiction. This becomes challenging for us. But there are permits that will have to be given out ... by the B.C. government and plans submitted and approved before work can proceed. We’ll be insisting and ensuring any plans submitted for approval meet a very robust and high test for First Nations consultations and for protecting B.C.’s environment. We’re looking at other legal tools in the permitting process and we’ll have more details to share in the coming days. What hasn’t changed is our absolute conviction that this pipeline and a seven-fold increase in tanker traffic is not in B.C.’s interest.
Q: Beyond stated plans for increasing the carbon tax, what are your options for a comprehensive climate-action strategy and setting a new legislated 2030 reduction target?
A: We’ll work with the building and development industry, as well as the energy retrofit industry to reduce emissions. We’ll also be dealing with transportation, looking at ... electrification wherever possible, increasing the number of zero-emission vehicles and implementing higher cleaner fuel standards. It’s also important to protect emission-intensive industries that are exposed to trade. It doesn’t help us if we put a price on carbon for B.C.’s cement industry, then import cement that faces no such carbon pricing and can be sold at a cheaper price.
Q: Will you place a carbon tax on fugitive gas emissions and emissions from slash-pile burning?
A: It’s obviously more complicated to measure and tax those than simply fuel being burned, but I’m in the process of looking at that.
Q: Will long-awaited, speciesat-risk legislation also protect habitat?
A: You cannot protect species without protecting habitat. They’re integral. How and where you do that and which species are at risk and to what extent is inevitably the subject of processes. B.C. is one of very few jurisdictions in Canada that does not have stand-alone speciesat-risk legislation. We’ve made a commitment to bring that in.
Q: The Liberals for years shied away from tougher regulations on farming and manure management to protect the environment, including fish stocks. What are your plans?
A: This is an issue in many places in B.C. Over-application of manure is an environmental threat, disposal of manure is a problem that faces farmers and release of greenhouses gases
from manure is a problem that faces all of us. I’m reviewing the options. It’s a priority for me. We’ll look at options that can provide a win-win.