Liberals roll out mountain pine beetle strategy
Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA, Citizen staff
Monday, 15 September 2008
The federal Liberals have launched a mountain pine beetle strategy, promising to spend $250 million over four years on combatting its spread and protecting communities from fire threat.
The Liberals also criticized the Conservatives for using a Tory beetle fund to upgrade B.C. Interior airports.
The Conservatives are in the midst of a 10-year, $1-billion beetle aid program.
The Liberals say the Tories raided the beetle fund to pay for airport improvements in Prince George, Kelowna and Kamloops, and that a Liberal government would restore those funds back to the pine beetle fund.
"This airport money should come straight from infrastructure funding, that's why our beetle fund will deal srictly with the cleanup of the beetle epidemic," said Cariboo-Prince George Liberal candidate Drew Adamick, a third-year UNBC student.
That includes providing financial support for homeowners who have to remove beetle-infected trees and ensuring fire safety for First Nations communities, said Adamick.
The $250-million Liberal funding is part of wider initiative the Liberals say they would undertake after consulting with the forestry sector. The Liberals promise to hold a national forestry summit to create a strategy to ensure the forest sector's long-term survival.
"The federal government must respond with a clear commitment to tackling this devastation so that our forest industry and our communities can thrive," said Ujjal Dosanjh, the Liberal candidate in Vancouver South who made the beetle-funding announcement in Vancouver on Sunday.
Cariboo-Prince George Conservative incumbent Dick Harris immediately pointed to his party's bigger $1-billion spending commitment, noting there is another $800 million remaining in their commitment during the next seven years. "I would say that's a little bit better," said Harris.
He also dismissed the Liberal charge that the Tory beetle fund had been raided improperly for airport funding, noting that the airport projects are key to helping those communities diversify their economies.
Harris accused the Liberals and Dosanjh of viewing B.C. Interior communities through a Lower Mainland prism. "(Dosanjh) has no understanding of what these Interior communities are going through," he said.
The beetle epidemic, which is wiping out commercially valuable lodgepole pine forests, is forecast to cause a 40 per cent drop in the timber supply in B.C.'s Interior. As a result, communities are facing a decrease in forestry jobs.
A Canadian Forest Service study indicated that a conservative 17 per cent drop in the timber supply in the Prince George region would cause a job loss of 2,900.
Harris said the airport project could help create hundreds of new long-term, well-paying jobs.
Adamick didn't rule out spending money on economic diversification, and said the national forestry summit would help flesh out a plan. He also said there should be more communication with local community groups and the federal government. "Those communities know what they need," said Adamick.
The $39-million Prince George Airport runway expansion -- to which the federal government contributed one-third -- has been touted as a key economic diversification project in northern B.C.
The upgrade is aimed at taking advantage of the airport's position on the circumpolar aviation route between Asia and North America. The idea is to entice planes to stop and refuel, and eventually handle cargo.
Cariboo-Prince George NDP candidate Bev Collins said she doesn't believe the Conservatives have spent $200 million on beetle-aid projects. "We think it's more like $100 million and the rest has been add-ons for other projects that they are now claiming come under the pine beetle funding," she said.
Collins also noted the New Democrats have promised $750 million to retrain forestry workers, an important element in moving from the old economy to the new energy economy.
The Green party Cariboo-Prince George candidate Hilary Crowley said they are in favour of diversifying economies in forest-based communities.
More emphasis needs to be placed on secondary wood manufacturing which produces more jobs per tree, she said. But Crowley also stressed that not every dead pine tree should be cut down because that's not good for the environment.
