As the province processes Wednesday night’s leaders’ debate, the list of questions that went unanswered has only grown, with the heads of the BC NDP and the BC Conservatives accusing each other of hiding the truth from the public.
BC NDP leader David Eby was in Surrey Thursday, promising the city its own charter, à la Vancouver, and sharing plans to make transit free for low-income seniors while expanding bus rapid transit between Surrey and White Rock.
He was also quick to point out that BC Conservative Interim Leader Lorne Doerkson didn’t have any public engagements, despite making a major infrastructure announcement – promising to cancel the long-overdue, over-budget, but under-construction Massey Tunnel project and go back to building a bridge.
“It’s just another example of a proposal that doesn’t survive follow-up questioning,” Eby said. “Well, how long’s it going to take? How much is it going to cost? Are we going to lose the federal funding?”
“Where is the Conservative leader to defend this proposal? Where is he? I don’t see him anywhere,” he said.
“He has the answers, he just doesn’t want to give them to the people of British Columbia.”
But Eby’s jabs were soon supplanted by his own controversy. A report by online publication NorthernBeat shared confidential documents that suggested the BC NDP had been examining how it could change compensation policies for forestry companies when land they are permitted to log on is transferred to a First Nation. If adopted, the proposal would avoid paying them entirely if less than five per cent of that land is transferred.
Eby added that the land transfers – representing about 380 parcels – are public record and were necessary elements of treaties that have been signed over the years to resolve disputes over title.
“Agreements with First Nations around forestry enable the forest sector to go ahead,” he said.
“Court challenges to forest tenures, to cutting permits and other things, mean that the industry totally stalls out.”
The forestry industry says it shouldn’t have to pay the price for reconciliation.
“They’re taking costs that we think should be borne by government, which is all of the costs related to any given agreement, and saying, ‘Industry should absorb some of this,’” said Kim Haakstad, president and CEO, BC Council of Forest Industries.
It’s not clear how much land or value those 380 parcels represent, but the NDP says about 200 of them could impact forestry operations.
“We don’t know the locations, and that also means we don’t know what the impact on the forest tenures would be, but we assume that they see it to be substantial,” Haakstad said.
“With the information that we have, it’s not something that we can support.”
Eby’s NDP has said the confidentiality of the engagement process is standard, and the land transfers are necessary to allow major projects to move forward. But for the forestry sector, it looks like this is a bridge too far.
