British Columbia Log Export Policy

Excerpt from British Columbia Log Export Policy: Historical Review and Analysis British Columbia has contributed to the offshore supply of logs since its earliest days; however, the volume and mix of export logs has been limited, in part, by policy. Repeated challenges and reviews of the log export policy have occurred, and each time, the restrictive policy has been affirmed - by Ministers of Forests and Lands in 1912, 1918, and periodically to 1987; and through provincially commissioned policy reviews in 1909, 1945, 1956, 1976, and 1983. Modifications in procedures have been recommended and approved, but the intent of keeping logs at home endures. Corporate executives, labor representatives, and Provincial foresters seem to agree that restricting logs to within-province use is wise. The importance of log exports to log producers and log users becomes clear with each major downturn in the forest industry. In 1908, during World War i, after the Great Depression, and in 1985, relaxed b.c. Log export policy kept loggers working and balanced the books for major industrial forest firms. As forest industry rebounded from each economic downturn, log export policy became increasingly restrictive. In 1988, the Minister of Forests and Lands reaffirmed the position by limiting exemptions for unharvested timber opened up during the lean years of the early 19803. What has been the policy? How has it been implemented? What is the history of log exporting in British Columbia? Do popular notions of the restrictiveness of the log export policy (never more than 4 percent of total harvest, acts as a safety valve for surplus logs in bad times, runs inverse to United States (us) housing demand) hold up? This report reviews log export policy and changes in the policy in a historical context. This is not a policy evaluation. The question about whether the policy promotes well-being within the Province is not addressed; and the study was not designed to predict export volumes in the past or future, although the historical log export data may be useful in carrying out other studies with that purpose. The purpose of this report is to describe the history of the log export policy and the administrative procedures associated with implementation, record the volume of logs exported historically from British Columbia, and discuss several propositions about log exporting in British Columbia. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.