North Cowichan Urges BC to Streamline Timber Harvesting Process to Keep Local Sawmills Open

The Municipality of North Cowichan wants BC to streamline its permitting process for timber harvesting in an effort to assist Western Forest Products (WFP), one of the municipality’s biggest taxpayers, the Cowichan Valley Citizen reported (7-29-24). However, the province says the current process is working in a timely manner.

In a letter to Forest Minister Bruce Ralston, North Cowichan Mayor Rob Douglas said the ministry’s delays in its permitting process for harvesting in a number of tree farm license (TFL) areas continues to be major issue for WFP, which employs more than 340 people at its three facilities in North Cowichan.

“The problem not only impacts the sawmill sector by reducing the overall wood availability, but also affects the supply of residual chips vital for the operations of our coastal pulp and paper mills, including Paper Excellence’s (Crofton) mill, North Cowichan’s largest employer and taxpayer,” Douglas said. “Our municipality would be happy to facilitate a meeting between you, your staff, and WFP to discuss concrete solutions to these issues. Addressing these challenges with the timber-permitting process and WFP’s operations is vital for the prosperity of our community and the future of the regional economy.”

WFP has recently curtailed operations at the Chemainus mill due to, in part, a lack of log availability, which Douglas said impacts local workers and creates uncertainty with regards to their future employment prospects, the Cowichan Valley Citizen reported.

In a statement in response to the mayor’s letter, the Ministry of Forests said there is currently no backlog of permit applications on the coast, and the turnaround times for cutting permit approval is within the normal targeted range. “Specifically, cutting permit turnaround time targets are achieved nearly 100% of the time and within the 40-day provincial performance measure,” the ministry said.

“We recognize how important fiber access is for the forestry industry, especially with the continued impacts of wildfires,” the ministry added. “We also understand market conditions have an impact on harvesting decisions. We will continue to take action to get more fiber to mill to ensure industry has the certainty and stability needed to make business decisions with confidence.”

The ministry said BC is not immune to the many challenges facing the North American forestry industry, including low market prices for lumber and high interest rates. “Mill curtailments have happened across North America as the price of lumber, which is critical to so many parts of the forestry industry, including in BC, has fallen after historical highs,” the statement said.

As for meeting with WFP to discuss the issues, the ministry said it has ongoing communication with all of its forest licence holders and will keep meeting with WFP.