Ravi Parmar

As the new minister of Forests, Ravi Parmar may have one of the toughest cabinet posts in BC. He will be under pressure to do something about the regulatory burden in B.C. that has been killing B.C. forest sector jobs at a time when B.C.’s forest sector faces crippling tariffs and duties. …A big part of the problem is a shrinking annual allowable cut (AAC). But forest industry leaders point out that… there is an adequate amount of AAC to keep the existing mills running, except that it has been made inaccessible due to cost and red tape. …“Regulations are only one part of the fibre story that we have here in BC,” Parmar said. He blames the big forestry companies for essentially cutting and running – i.e. harvesting the most valuable timber first, when prices were high, and not making the investments needed to access some of the less economic timber.