The provincial government is thinking seriously about loosening restrictions on access to timber along Highway 16 to ensure enough supply for a rebuilt Babine Forest Products, Nechako Lakes MLA John Rustad confirmed Monday.
The move, which could provide as much as an additional three million cubic metres of timber per year, would mean less stringent visual quality objectives and encroachment on wildlife corridors. Commentators are worrying it will be an initial step towards similar measures elsewhere.
But Rustad argued the concern is not so big up here.
"We have the same type of requirements as say, the Okanagan or Vancouver Island or the Vancouver-Whistler corridor," Rustad said. "But we're not the Okanagan, we're not the Island - we're an industrial area.
"Now that's not saying all the visual quality objectives should be removed but surely we shouldn't have the same requirements here as we do in other areas that have very high tourist values."
Roughly 250 people worked at Babine Forest Products before mill was leveled in a Jan. 20 explosion and fire, leaving the community of Burns Lake, home to about 3,600 people 226 kilometres west of Prince George without its main employer.
Rustad also noted local politicians unanimously passed a motion from Vanderhoof council at the 2010 Union of British Columbia Municipalities conference urging the provincial government to relax or remove visual quality objectives and wildlife tree patches.
With the end of harvesting of beetle-killed timber in sight, the region is facing a fall down in fibre supply, option must be considered, Rustad maintained.
"The reality is, I'm not willing to say to a community like Quesnel or Burns Lake or Vanderhoof or even Prince George, that the values of the visual impacts are greater than your requirement to have fibre to keep your mills open," Rustad said. "I'm not prepared to say that."
Jobs Minister Pat Bell said earlier this month that there is not enough fibre within the immediate Lakes District timber supply area to support Babine's revival and officials are now looking to areas as far away as Prince George, Houston, Fort St. James and Vanderhoof.
It could also mean shuffling timber licences, Bell said, to ensure other sawmills are not hurt.
Rustad hopes a "sustainable number" for supplying Babine for the next 20 to 40 years can be taken to the mill's owner, Oregon-based Hamption Affiliates, by mid to late April.
Norm Macdonald, the NDP's forestry critic, reserved comment until details are released but he did say the Liberals have failed to respond adequately to criticism from the auditor general, the Forest Practices Board and professional foresters who say the necessary inventory and silviculture work has not been done to prepare B.C. for the falldown.
