There are a lot of forestry workers suffering job losses which the lumber barons claim are the result of high log costs, low log availability, and reduced lumber demand.
There is little doubt that the 20 per cent tariff to the United States is also a prime culprit.
Meanwhile our so-called socialist government is twiddling its thumbs thinking about doing something about raw log exports, which by the way are also being provided to the United States in spite of the imposed tariff.
We used to ensure that the people who suffered the effect of logging could also expect to get some benefit from the carnage, by insisting that logs cut in an area also had to be milled there, but Gordon Campbell ended that practice to please his corporate pals.
So why is the NDP/Green Party government so shy to reinstate something that is obviously so good for rural British Columbians?
Instead we have to put up with Minister Mungall informing us of what a great benefit she has bestowed on us by cutting the electricity rate for BC Hydro customers by … wait for it … $16 a year, which by her reckoning is very, very, significant, based on her claim that she used to run a food bank.
This bargain basement rate will only go down for one year of course, and then the next year the rates will increase by double that amount. What a sham!
I demand that the government stops exporting raw logs, and reinstates the stricture that protects rural people from these log rustling corporations. The people of rural British Columbia need and deserve these protections. What are they waiting for?
Rod Retzlaff
Glade