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Petition to Stop the Privatization of Public Forests in British Columbia
Please note: While valid contact information is required to ensure the petition is accepted by the government, it will be kept strictly private and will never be shared with a third party.
To: The BC Liberal government
We, the undersigned, are calling on the BC Liberal government, Premier Gordon Campbell, and all BC Liberal MLA’s to immediately drop and / or rescind all legislation and policies that promote the de facto and outright privatization of BC’s public forests.
Whereas:
- The proposed Working Forest Initiative would cover 45 million hectares, or 100% of BC’s unprotected public forests.
- 97% of 2700 respondents in the BC government's own public consultation process in 2003 opposed the Working Forest Initiative, while only 1% supported it - yet the government is still pushing ahead with their proposal.
- The Working Forest Initiative would make it easier for the government to engage in the outright sell-off of public forest lands to real estate developers by removing most of the steps that are currently involved in selling-off Crown lands.
- The Working Forest Initiative would designate legally-binding, guaranteed logging zones called “Timber Access Targets” over most of our public forests that obstruct the establishment of new protected areas.
- Any increase in the certainty for timber corporations to access public forests increases their expectations to profit from logging those forests. This will position them to demand more financial compensation from BC taxpayers if their access to cut public forests is denied.
- The Forestry Revitalization Act eliminates the social contract that logging companies on public lands once had with local communities. It eliminates local milling requirements and minimum cut control regulations, and allows companies to sell-off pieces of tenures on public lands, thus eliminating employment stability and security for forestry workers.
- Major logging corporations already have too much certainty on our public lands, including exclusive tenures, an Allowable Annual Cut, and excessive compensation provisions under the Forest Act and the Parks Compensation Act.
- Privatization hurts forestry workers, First Nations, wild ecosystems, recreationalists, tourism businesses, and drinking water quality by eliminating most laws designed to protect them.
THEREFORE, WE THE UNDERSIGNED CALL ON THE BC GOVERNMENT TO:
- DROP ALL PLANS TO IMPLEMENT THE WORKING FOREST INITIATIVE
- RESCIND ALL FOREST PRIVATIZATION INITIATIVES
Sincerely,
The Undersigned
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