Stefan Labbé

The amount of wood pellets chipped out of British Columbia’s forests and shipped overseas has doubled in the past 10 years, raising concerns the timber industry continues to neglect manufacturing in favour of direct export, a new report released by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, authored by forestry expert Ben Parfitt. It analyzes the rise of Japan as B.C.’s largest destination for wood pellets… Parfitt says policymakers should ban pellets made from logged primary forests. He also says the province should enact a “solid wood first” policy where companies are penalized if they convert logs into wood pellets when the wood could otherwise be made into value-added products like trusses and joists. He recommends applying a carbon tax on emissions connected to logs or wood waste now burned as “slash.” And to improve transparency, he proposes a legal requirement that all timber-processing facilities submit to annual reports detailing what wood they use.