Jock Finlayson and Glen Clark

The B.C. NDP government has made some significant policy changes on everything from indigenous reconciliation and forestry to climate change. But it should pump the brakes on land use changes that create uncertainty for business and investors, former B.C. NDP premier Glen Clark said at the Business Council of BC’s annual Business Summit. …Clark said some [current] government action is creating great uncertainty for business. …Clark said the B.C. forestry sector in particular is in trouble. “The industry is literally a shadow of its former self,” he said. “In recent years, the provincial government has made literally dozens of changes to the rules governing forestry and land use,” he said. “While each change, in and of itself, may be justified, the cumulative impact on industry operating on the land has been devastating. “The B.C. forest industry is in crisis. Sawmills have closed and more are closing. Harvest levels are down… Pulp mills are unprofitable.” Last year, B.C. harvested only 60 per cent of the annual allowable cut, Clark said. “Even when fibre is available, industry does not have access to it.”