Communities Need Help

Public Forest Policies Drive Up Costs
Policies and high taxes introduced by past provincial governments have made BC forest companies among the highest cost producers in North America. We have lost our competitive edge.

BC Jobs
British Columbia has a workforce of 1,900,000. Of these more than 270,000, or about 14% of the province's workforce depend on the forest industry for their livelihood. These are good jobs, paying an average wage of $50,000 per year compared to the provincial average of $33,000 (1999).

The Fate of Your Town
Forestry supports our communities. Community dependence on the forest industry is significant and increasing. The forest industry supports more BC communities than all other business sectors combined. Outside the GVRD, there are 270 communities in 31 local areas dependent on the forest industry. Without forestry many of these resource-dependent communities will face economic hardship. The survival of some communities would be in doubt. Although its economy is more diversified, even the GVRD, where 120,000 direct and indirect jobs depend on forestry, will feel the adverse impacts of a declining forest sector.

Billions at Stake
Our economy is at risk. Forestry contributes about 16% of the provincial gross domestic product and more than $4 billion annually to all governments by way of taxes. That's about equal to all of the Kindergarten to Grade 12 operating budget in BC.

There are Solutions
Fortunately, BC Forest policy can be improved in ways that can not only stabilize the forest sector, but strengthen it and its ability to contribute to BC communities.

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