I have great sympathy for mill workers in Crofton and Chemainus and the other 43 mills in towns throughout B.C. that have closed because there is “insufficient viable fibre supply.” This statement is smoke to hide the fact that the companies, with the complicity of the province, have over-harvested the forest since at least the 1970s. Second-growth trees are not as voluminous as virgin timber. Second-growth is harvested in a last gasp to get as much profit from the woods before shuttering mills due to “insufficient viable fibre supply”. The forest sector has made high profits and paid tariffs and softwood lumber duties since the 1980s, and now that the merchantable timber is gone, the blame is being transferred. …This situation even has a name — “The Fall Down Effect” — and has been predicted since the 1970s. …Timber processing will have to adapt to less volume and evolve toward greater value added.