Thread by @Lidsville

So, @BIVnews is platforming forest industry whining by a resource extraction shill, Stewart Muir (ResourceWorks). I hesitate to link to it, but here it is, and then I'll rebut it. biv.com/article/2021/1… #OldGrowth forests #FairyCreek #bcpoli

@BIVnews ..Forest expert says: "Since 2005, 35 sawmills in BC’s Interior & 9 on the coast were permanently shuttered, along with ~ half the coastal shake & shingle mills, & 1000s of jobs were lost with these closures all without a ripple or a blip to BC’s GDP or the total BC labour force"

@BIVnews .."The forest industry needs to downsize by many more mills and jobs than Muir is parading here. We can only hope COFI’s [Council of Forest Industries] prediction will come to pass. Communities will rebound if we conserve all old growth now." #oldgrowth #bcpoli

@BIVnews The fact is that job losses in forestry are not due to conservation (conservation - ha!) but due to profit-seeking measures by forest corps, incl mechanization: "Now a 4 person crew can mow down more wood with feller-bunchers and log processors than a 12 person crew used to."

@BIVnews "The chorus of Chicken Little whining over #OldGrowth deferrals from a heavily subsidized ($1m a day?) forest industry that contributes only 2% to BC's labour force & 2% to BC GDP—far less value than the biodiversity & climate it destroys—& has itself cut 52K jobs, is sickening."

@BIVnews COFI: provide the supporting data & analyses that back up your assertion that 14-20 sawmills & 2 pulp mills will close, 18K jobs will be lost & $400m in forgone govt revenue will occur if the proposed #oldgrowth deferrals are put in place. Because experts don't buy it. #bcpoli

@BIVnews The forest industry's gross misrepresentation of the facts, and @BIVNews & co's failure to fact-check this industry arm-waving, both need to be challenged. Esp when the NDP govt seems prone to caving in the face of corporate pressure. #bcpoli #oldgrowth #FairyCreek

@BIVnews How excessively is BC subsidizing logging companies?:

"Over the past 10 years the cost to the public purse of managing BC’s publicly-owned forests has exceeded all direct revenue collected from the forest industry by $3.65 billion"

#OldGrowth #bcpoli
focusonvictoria.ca/forests/forest…

@BIVnews Now, IF the logging industry in BC actually lived up to claims it will value-add to timber it cuts, there would be none of the job losses it's falsely whining about - losses it caused itself through mechanization, raw log expert, pulling back milling into southern U.S. etc etc.

@BIVnews NTM that the logging industry has wastefully clearcut nearly all of the big ancient trees that it finds so profitable. It isn't nearly as interested in the comparatively low yields from the monoculture tree plantations it was forced to replant. This day was always going to come.

@BIVnews To sum up, saving the last of BC's #oldgrowth forests will not have a significant impact on jobs or BC GDP. That's a pile of misinfo from the logging lobby. Don't believe the hype.

And when Stewart Muir is blowing smoke, @BIVNews should have the professionalism not to print it.