A report released recently by the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives says that thousands of new forest industry jobs could be created while boosting the health of B.C.'s forests.
"B.C. is missing out on major opportunities to create green, sustainable jobs in a revitalized forest sector that places a premium on healthy carbon stores in our forests and forest products," said author Ben Parfitt, resource policy analyst with CCPA.
The report identifies a number of areas where B.C. could boost jobs including:
• 2,630 additional manufacturing jobs turning raw logs that are currently exported into higher-value forest products.
• Another 2,400 jobs per year converting usable logs left behind at logging sites (and often burned) into forest products instead.
• Another 10,000-plus jobs over time in the production of secondary forest products such as pre-fabricated housing components, a job increase that would begin to catch B.C. up with Ontario and Quebec who are out-competing B.C. in production of value-added forest products. And,
• An additional 5,200 seasonal tree-planting and tree nursery jobs, funded by an annual $100 million public investments in reforestation.
"B.C. has shown leadership in its commitments to lower greenhouse gas emissions. But it has not done near enough to take advantage of numerous opportunities to increase the health of its forests by storing more carbon in its trees and forest products. There is great potential for more sustainable jobs in the forest sector," Parfitt said. "It's time to get on with the job."
The report is available at www.policyalternatives.ca/greenforests on the Internet.