Vaughn Palmer, Vancouver Sun
Published: Tuesday, March 04, 2008
VICTORIA - The B.C. Liberals have often touted the effort to put more timber into the hands of first nations as a way of creating jobs and economic activity in native communities.
But they won't find much to boast about in the first comprehensive survey of the results of their "forest and range opportunity" agreements.
The report was produced by a well-qualified trio -- professional forester Bill Dumont, native logging contractor Dan Hanuse and native forestry management consultant Keith Atkinson. They were working for the federally funded Aboriginal Forest Industries Council.
They found the Liberals have indeed allocated significant amounts of timber to first nations through the five-year opportunity agreements.
The authors contacted some 99 aboriginal bands that had, among them, gained access to almost 27 million cubic metres of timber.
That is "close to half wood harvested and processed by the entire forest industry in a given year," they noted.
But the survey turned up no corresponding surge of forest-related employment. The first nations on the receiving end of all that wood have created a total of 934 jobs in all categories of forest employment, including harvesting, processing, reforestation, road-building and support jobs.
This after the authors adopted a "generous definition" of full-time employment, meaning "six months of continuous work in the last two years."
Fully half the bands "had not reached any level of actual production." For them, the only increased activity involved planning work with outside consultants. Most of the others had commenced joint ventures of some sort with non-native operators.
Less than half the resulting jobs were at the high end of the skill set -- mechanized falling, engineering, management, training, mapping and so forth. Most were in tree planting or basic harvesting.
The report reckons that the forest industry delivers 1,000 jobs for every million cubic metres of timber harvested annually.
The survey group of first nations has to date reaped just 35 jobs for every million cubic metres of their timber allocation. "About three per cent of industry standards," notes the report.
"The mainstream industry is achieving this in a massive forestry downturn. Also it generates 2,000 service and supply jobs for every primary 1,000 forestry jobs. That's a level not even remotely achieved among first nations."
The report offers reasons for the disappointing results, some not flattering to government.
The forest agreements were mainly undertaken for "political reasons" and under pressure from the courts.
The allocations included "unmarketable species," including substandard grades, remote stands, and beetle-killed wood.
Government financing was "inadequate." The tenures were only for five years and not renewable. "Non-replaceable timber rights are not much of a financial asset."
Then again, the natives faced their own limitations. Their communities are isolated, their workers untrained. They lack management, expertise and industry savvy.
They were plunged into the business of trying to develop a timber resource at probably the worst time in the past three decades. "The awards coincided with a near collapse of the industry, meaning low prices and limited markets."
Some of the industry's most experienced players were being driven to the wall. Newcomers hadn't a chance.
Moreover, say the authors, drawing on their familiarity with the native community, "many first nations have high and unrealistic expectations of the wealth and employment prospects of their respective tenure rights, how expensive and difficult the capacity development will be or how competitive the business can be."
Access to wood is just the beginning of a forest venture. A company needs as much as $5 million to finance a 50,000-cubic-metre-a-year logging operation. A modern sawmill can run upwards of $75 million.
"Few first nations, individually or collectively, have resources internally to finance such enterprises."
But none of this is offered as a cause for abandoning the effort to develop a native-based forest industry in the province. Natives have the strong hand dealt them by the courts. They have the potential workforce and the proximity to the timber.
Despite some reservations about the way the first round of allocations was handled, the authors don't doubt Victoria's good intentions. "It is clear that the ministry of forests, charged with delivering on the government promise of more aboriginal forestry participation, is very interested in seeking first nations fully engaged in the forest sector."
The report concludes by urging both sides to take the exercise more seriously in the next round.
Longer-term tenures. Training, financing and business plans up front. Realistic joint ventures. Building for the long run, not political expedience.