David Elstone
There has been plenty written on this year’s horrendous wildfire season. It’s justified, since it has been the worst year for hectares burnt, record value of insurance claims for destroyed property, and most sadly, the lives lost by those working to fight wildfire. Merchantable timber and non-timber natural values were burnt including old growth forests, wildlife habitat and parks – the fires were non-discerning to what we value. …The evidence is abundant that the status quo on wildfire management is no longer a viable path. In many respects, we may be quickly arriving at a pivot point on forest management driven by wildfire. The BC government recently announced a task force on emergency management during wildfire, but the task force will not address what is desperately needed. … BC has a long history of fire suppression [and] much of what we need to know has all been documented by successive reviewers, and yet not much has been done.
To substantially enhance the resilience of our forested landscapes to fire, it will require substantive change by government and by industry on how to manage our forests, and just as equally, it will require changes to our traditional notions of conservation. …This suggests areas we have protected from commercial timber harvesting will still need forest management if we want such areas to endure. …The provincial government hopefully will have the funding, but the industry is key to implementation. Unfortunately, industry capacity is shrinking and will continue to do so if something is not done to address this trend. …To some it may be counter-intuitive to believe that to promote and protect both conservation and economic values of our forested landscapes, intervention through more harvesting activities (thinning etc.), not less, will be the solution. The alternative is the status quo, no change nor action; we are already bearing witness as to how that’s working out.
FRUITVALE, BC — Kootenay Boundary Regional fire fighters say there are no injuries after a small explosion and fire Saturday morning at Atco Lumber in Fruitvale. The fire was contained by the sprinkler system to the compressor room of the log debarker building. The crew of 15 from Trail, Montrose and Fruitvale got the call at about 10 a.m. when smoke was spotted coming out of the building. Officials say they arrived about 15 minutes later and had the situation under control by 10:45 a.m. The blaze was put it out and fire fighters remained on the scene to overhaul the area and begin their investigation.
VICTORIA, BC — The Tlowitsis, We Wai Kai, Wei Wai Kum and K’ómoks First Nations and Western Forest Products have reached an agreement for the Nations to acquire a 34% interest from Western in a newly formed Limited Partnership for $35.9 million. The BC government helped to facilitate the Partnership through Incremental Treaty Agreements with the Nations, all of whom are in Stage 5 of the BC Treaty Process. …The Partnership… includes Block 2 of Tree Farm Licence 39 [and] covers 157,000 hectares of forest land near the communities of Campbell River and Sayward on eastern Vancouver Island. The Partnership will manage an allowable annual cut of 904,540 cubic metres of timber and includes a long-term fibre agreement to support Western’s coastal manufacturing operations. …“The partnership is an excellent example of working together towards reconciliation,” said Premier David Eby. …Western’s CEO Steven Hofer said, “we are ushering in a new era of forestry in this province.”
The head of the B.C.-based Paper Excellence has declined to appear before a federal committee investigating its corporate structure and business relations. The disclosure, made earlier this month, came four months after committee members passed a motion calling for Jackson Wijaya, CEO and sole shareholder of the company, to answers lawmakers’ questions. NDP MP Charlie Angus submitted a notice of motion to issue a legal summons for Wijaya so that he appear no later than three weeks after it’s adopted. The committee is expected to vote on the motion next week. Should the motion pass and Wijaya step foot on Canadian soil, he could legally be detained and forced to appear in Ottawa before the committee. If he ignores the legal summons, he could be called to the bar in the House of Commons to receive questioning, admonishment or reprimand for “an offence against the dignity or authority of Parliament.”
The firing of an accountant by a B.C. pulp and paper mill for making secret recordings was justified, the B.C. Court of Appeal has ruled, even though the employer didn’t know about the recordings until the employee sued the company for wrongful dismissal. …“This decision emphasizes the importance that the court places on the privacy rights of individuals and employees and serves as a reminder that an employee’s actions, especially those that infringe upon trust and privacy, can indeed constitute just cause for termination.” The case centres on a certified professional accountant, Roman Shalagin, who worked for Mercer Celgar Ltd., which owns a pulp and papermill in Castlegar, B.C. …“The trial judge concluded that the plaintiff’s conduct in making the recordings undermined the relationship of trust between the plaintiff and the employer and constituted just cause for termination.”
New funding for value-added wood producers and manufacturing businesses in the Kootenays will protect workforces and support strong communities. …As part of the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund, nearly $500,000 is being invested into Kootenay businesses to help them innovate for the future. As much as $400,000 will support a capital improvement project by Creston’s J.H. Huscroft Ltd., a value-added speciality manufacturer of glulam, trim, boarding and flooring. The company will purchase and replace equipment that will boost productivity and capacity at its sawmill, protecting 75 jobs and expanding the types of logs that can be processed. …“Today, we are funding companies that are expanding our industries and finding new ways to get value from our forests and other sectors,” said Bruce Ralston, Minister of Forests. “We are modernizing and innovating so that small communities in our province will have more stable economies and good-paying jobs.”
Construction sites are hit by fire in unexpected ways, whether due to improperly stored construction materials that catch fire or a vandal intentionally setting a blaze. …Those who adopt new materials and technologies, and also take steps to mitigate the risks, can lessen the threat of fire and prevent their projects from going up in flames. …Wood-framed structures are particularly vulnerable to fire risk. …Therefore, contractors who build wood-framed structures must be mindful of the risks and take steps beyond traditional fire mitigation strategies to protect their projects. …Consider alternative materials: in the last decade, Canada has seen the construction of nearly 500 mass timber structures – and more are going up every year. Introduce specialty products: introducing a fire-resistive coating to the wood used to construct a building’s frame can significantly lessen the risk of a catastrophic fire event… Insurers may offer more competitive premiums and conditions to builders who utilize these materials
Irreplaceable ancient forests that should meet criteria for interim protection are being left open to logging in BC due to outdated and inaccurate government data, advocates and an ecologist who advised the province say. “The deferral process was intended to stop the bleed,” said Karen Price, who served on the provincially appointed panel that identified 2.6 million hectares of high-priority old growth and recommended it be set aside from logging. …But Price said old growth remains unidentified and open to logging due to “problematic” data that underestimates its age, especially for ancient forests. …The discrepancy increases with age… so B.C.’s deferral process is missing areas that should meet the criteria for old growth, Price said. …The Forests Ministry said the panel worked with higher-level mapping and “acknowledged that the modelling would need to be verified and that some areas may turn out not to be what they had thought.”
PRINCE GEORGE — If there’s one thing this past fire season has told us, it’s that we need to get serious about reducing the fire risk around Prince George. I want to stress the pretty straightforward idea of prioritizing broadleaf over conifer, aspen over pine in particular. It’s an undeniable fact the resinous pitch-soaked pine and spruce will light up much more swiftly than a water-logged aspen should a fire sweep into our city. The burn rates are different by orders of magnitude. …Residents should be encouraged to keep their broadleaf, not the conifer. And perhaps more critically, we need to pressure provincial forestry officials to ask themselves what they care about: growing fire-trap plantation forests to threaten our communities or diverse forests with lots of aspen to dampen those flames and feed those moose and beaver?
Every year, approximately 7,000 workers suffer injuries due to slips, trips, and falls. WorkSafeBC is urging employers and workers to manage the prevalent risk of slips, trips, and falls in the workplace. Each year, approximately 20 percent of workplace injuries are related to slips, trips, and falls. In the past six years, almost 41,000 workers in B.C. suffered slip-trip-and-fall injuries, including fractures, sprains, and dislocations. Slips, trips, and falls are the costliest workplace incidents and some of the biggest causes of general productivity loss. On average, slip-trip-and-fall injuries cost B.C. businesses 440,000 lost workdays and more than $148 million in claim costs each year. Sectors most impacted include healthcare and social services, construction, the service sector, and manufacturing.