These reserves that the Liberals and NDP were so quick to throw under the bus are the last remaining habitat for a number of species from cariboo and moose to soil bacteria, owls and hundreds of the other endangered species that still cling to life in BC's once abundant biosphere. These supposed reserves were made reserves to protect and preserve the native species that once populated BC so that one day, perhaps after the present rapacious dominant species drowns in its own excrement, might have a chance to repopulate the region and thereby allow it to recover its abundance.
Why would BC's NDP vote in favor of a report like that? Because they, like all political parties, are beholding to their financial supporters. During the hearings leading up to the report the Steelworkers Union [formally the IWA] was outspoken in their support of expanding logging into reserves. It's understandable, though IMO ignorantly short term thinking, that the forestry unions take that position, they are speaking only for their present members. The NDP, however, should be speaking for all British Columbians, present and future. They should be what the quarterly profit driven capitalists never are - long term thinkers.
None of these culprits, Liberals, NDP, unions or capitalists, paid more than lip service to what almost every person in the comment section of every article on the situation saw clearly as the best solution - STOP raw log exports immediately. The people of BC see what the culprits refuse to see, there's value added prosperity and jobs, if we utilize to the maximum, our own natural resources. The timber supply problem is caused by short term thinking, no matter how well managed our forest resource is from now on it'll take 50-100 years for that past mismanagement to be overcome. Increasing the supply slightly for a decade by logging the reserves in order to save a few jobs is just more short term thinking that the future generations [if there are any] will have to pay for.
Stopping raw log exports immediately will cost investors and speculators money [who could deserve it more] and it will increase the cost of BC's lumber. But why worry about the cost of BC lumber to other countries. We have it, they need it. Trust me, much like Newfoundland's Danny Williams did with the big oil vultures, they will be back at the table soon enough to buy. It should be a crime to sell out our natural resources to other countries in the service selfish personal gain for the few while eliminating jobs for the people who are supposed to own the resources, yet that's exactly what BC's Liberal and NDP parties both support.
The BC NDP's website attempts to turn the focus onto the BC Liberals for the shortcomings of the recent Timber Supply Report and away from their complicity in its conclusions. but... it's important to remember that the most significant environmental protests and one of the largest acts of civil disobedience in Canadian history occurred in the summer of 1993 when the then NDP government of BC sent in the RCMP who arrested nearly 1,000 of the 11,000 people who came to Clayoquot Sound that summer to take part in the protests against the logging of the old-growth forests on Meares Island that was trumpeted by the NDP's IWA backers and legislated by the NDP government of the time, 'a time i remember oh so well'.
