While raw log exports are making headlines across the province, it remains primarily a coastal issue, according to Central Interior Logging Association executive director Mary-Anne Arcand.
Exports of raw logs - trees which have been harvested but not manufactured into higher-value products - increased by 136 per cent between 2009 and 2011, according to a report by the B.C. NDP. On the coast, approximately 40 per cent of all trees cut were exported as raw logs.
"[But] there is not a lot in the central interior," Arcand said. "We have a lot of [local] markets for this wood as lumber. I did a survey of our members... for 80 per cent of our members, it's not on their radar."
Arcand said for the 20 per cent of the association's members which had done harvesting for raw log export, it was a marginal portion of their total activity.
"On the coast, the northwest and Kitimat... I don't know if they'd be doing much [logging] if it wasn't for raw logs," Arcand said. "[But] we don't have that same concern here."
B.C. NDP leader Adrian Dix said while the issue of raw log exports is currently a coastal concern, it represents an alarming trend. Processing logs within the province generates as much as five times as many jobs as logging and exporting raw logs, he said.
In B.C. before logs can be exported unprocessed, an application must be made to the provincial Timber Export Advisory Committee (TEAC). The committee than applies a "surplus test," to determine if the logs are surplus to the needs of B.C. based producers, he said.
In December, Forest Minister Steve Thompson approved the export of logs despite the recommendation of the committee that they be sold to Surrey-based Teal Jones for manufacturing, Dix said.
"The minister has overruled jobs in B.C.," Dix said.
Dix called on Thompson to explain why the recommendations of his own committee were overruled.
While the committee must examine if the logs are surplus to the needs of local manufacturers, Thompson said, the committee is also supposed to consider if the logging company would receive fair market value for their product.
"In these cases it was found that the offers were not at fair market value," Thompson said. "In administering the policy, TEAC is an advisory committee to us. We've had conversations with TEAC and will continue to work with TEAC on clarifying this issue."
Thompson said the export of raw logs continues to be an important economic driver for the coastal forest industry.
"The opposition are out there saying that log exports cost jobs," Thompson said. "There are success stories like the Coast Tsimshain [First Nation] who have built a very successful business based on log exports. Log exports are an important part of the economic equation."
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