Many of us grew up in an era when everyone knew someone who worked at a lumber or pulp mill, or drove a logging truck, or wielded a chainsaw in the woods.
It wasnsa国际传媒檛 long ago that B.C. was so synonymous with logging that even Monty Python could joke about sa国际传媒渢he mighty rivers of British Columbiasa国际传媒� in the lumberjack sketch. If you knew nothing else about B.C., you knew it was where men in plaid cut down big trees.
Up into the 1980s and early 1990s, even suburban communities like Langley, Surrey, and Maple Ridge had shorelines dotted with mills.
Remember the old Interfor mill in Fort Langley? Remember how Fort Langley used to be a sort of quaint little village that had a couple of museums, but was still largely a blue-collar town?
Those days are fading fast, and the recent provincial budget shows how much B.C.sa国际传媒檚 economic relationship with forestry has transformed over the space of a single generation.
Forestry is unquestionably in crisis right now, with mills shutting down, a debilitating labour dispute just ended, and low lumber prices and allowable cuts weighing on the whole industry.
The governmentsa国际传媒檚 response has been decidedly mixed.
But if it were any other non-resource industry that was in this kind of trouble sa国际传媒� if there was a slump in software or mass layoffs at a couple of retail chains sa国际传媒� you wouldnsa国际传媒檛 see the kind of breathless media coverage the forestry crisis has received.
We still think of British Columbia as somehow grounded in forestry. And while itsa国际传媒檚 a big industry, itsa国际传媒檚 not the biggest, and it hasnsa国际传媒檛 been in quite a while.
Go back to 1991 sa国际传媒� the earliest year for which numbers are available from BC Statistics sa国际传媒� and 97,000 people were employed in forestry, mills, and forestry support activities. In 2017, that was down to 51,793, down to barely more than half its previous total.
Meanwhile, B.C.sa国际传媒檚 population in 1991 was 3.3 million. Todaysa国际传媒檚 population is five million. Forestry is an ever smaller portion of an ever larger economic pie.
Population increases in B.C. year-over-year have been running at more than 70,000 people, a historic high.
Thatsa国际传媒檚 more people than even work in the industry, coming to this province every year for several years running. Itsa国际传媒檚 jobs being created in homebuilding, manufacturing, technology, education, tourism, and retail, and countless other jobs that have nothing to do with forestry.
This is, in many ways, a good news story. B.C.sa国际传媒檚 unemployment remains low, and the economy is far more diversified than when it was a three-legged stool based on forestry, fishing, and mining. When the forestry industry caught a cold in the 1970s or 1980s, it was enough to sicken the entire economy.
Now, the worst crisis in decades is hitting many communities and shops hard sa国际传媒� but it isnsa国际传媒檛 devastating the whole of the province. The forestry industry needs help, but itsa国际传媒檚 not the jobs driver it once was.
