B.C. cabinet to streamline forest, mining ministries; environmentalists worry
Copyright © 2001, Canoe Limited
October 25, 2001
VICTORIA (CP) -- Two British Columbia cabinet ministers made pitches Wednesday to fundamentally change the way their resource-based ministries work.
But suggestions that changed regulations could pay off with huge revenues has environmentalists alarmed.
Richard Neufeld, Energy and Mines Minister, said B.C. can reap $24 billion in investment, 8,000 jobs and $16.2 billion in revenue if it changes the way it manages the industry.
"The biggest thing is fostering competition, that's what we have to do in this province," he told an open meeting of cabinet that was broadcast live across the province.
But the call for less regulation and more competition in the forests and mining ministries was immediately criticized by Green Party leader Adriane Carr as a threat to the province's air, water and land.
"They are turning back the clock saying the way we are going to spark our economy is by being strong hewers of wood and miners of mountainsides," she said after attending the open cabinet meeting.
"We need a strong regulatory environment to hold industry accountable."
Neufeld said British Columbia received $2.3 billion in energy revenues last year, but a bonanza is waiting if the government manages to coax industry with a less onerous regulatory burden that still includes environmental protection.
Forests Minister Mike de Jong called for shifts in his ministry's business model.
The proposed market-based model would be based on results and company accountability as opposed to current government methods of control and micro-managing, he said.
"What's out there now just isn't working," de Jong said. "Go to Tahsis, Gold River and Prince Rupert, there's a pretty sad legacy there."
The three are examples of failed forest industry communities in B.C.
De Jong also announced his ministry's decision to replace Forest Renewal B.C., a plan introduced by the previous New Democratic government to retrain displaced forest workers.
"There has been a lot of money wasted," he said. "We are going to replace it with a new delivery model."
Cabinet endorsed both ministry plans.
"The sooner we get on with it the better," said Health Services Minister Colin Hansen.