The provincial government will conduct a review of forest policy as it relates to the Interior, Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson said Tuesday.
Slated to begin by the end of April and be completed by the end of this year, Donaldson said it will follow on one for the Coastal forest sector that was completed in January following six months of consultation with various stakeholders.
That review generated a series of policy initiatives to encourage more domestic processing of logs and fibre and reduce the amount of waste left behind in harvest areas.
Donaldson called the outcome "very successful" and said some of the initiatives regarding the increased use of fibre will impact the Interior.
However, while he said the fact that wood was being exported rather than being manufactured domestically was a prime issue in the Coastal sector "it's really about curtailment and a lack of wood in the Interior."
The review is among a handful of steps Donaldson noted in response to criticism B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson leveled in an interview on Monday that the NDP has done little to ease the pain area sawmills and their workers are feeling.
Canfor, West Fraser and Conifex have all invoked production curtailments in answer to declining lumber prices combined with rising log costs and lack of fibre supply.
Donaldson also raised a forestry-related trade mission to Asia in December as an example of the steps that have been taken. Donaldson was part of the entourage that went to Japan and South Korea while government officials chose to skip the China leg of the trip due to tense diplomatic relations over the arrest of Huawei executive Meng Wanzhou.
As well, he said cutting permits have been expedited for more than 2.4 million cubic metres of fire damaged timber over the last two years.
And he made note of the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. Established in 2016 with $85 million from the provincial government, in part it funds projects designed to improve damaged or low-value forests and encourage the use of fire from those forests.
"Through that organization, we've invested $173 million in reforestation, wildfire risk reduction and habitat restoration," Donaldson said. "And that again allows us to address forest health, allows us to find more creative and economic ways of bringing fibre out that was seen as uneconomical."
Wilkinson contended more can be done to ensure sawmills have access to a reliable supply of timber.
However, Donaldson said it was inevitable that the annual allowable cut was going to be reduced to levels seen prior to the pine beetle epidemic.
To reduce waste on the Coast, policy initiatives include creating "fibre recovery zones" where failure to reach new lower benchmarks will lead to penalties.
Prior to 2003, "avoidable waste fibre" on the Coast was less than five per cent of the harvest volume but by 2017, the proportion had grown to 16 per cent, according to a ministry backgrounder and, in some cutblocks, wasted fibre volumes are greater than the timber volume harvested.
While some waste is inevitable and can be good for the environment, some, referred to as "avoidable waste fibre," is also left behind because it costly to remove and has limited economic value.
Wilkinson also accused Donaldson of taking the side of Wet'suwet'en hereditary chiefs in the controversy over the Coastal GasLink pipeline when he showed up at a blockade against the project.
Donaldson, the MLA for Stikine, said it's his job to listen to his constituents' concerns and countered that the B.C. Liberals failed to listen when forest industry workers "overwhelmingly wanted to see a resolution to the softwood lumber disagreement with the United States."
Despite having two years to reach a deal, Donaldson said the previous government never did, and "we're left cleaning up the mess."
