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[ INSIDE BC is Not in Business Without a Working Forest ]
Spring 2019
The Culmination of the Contractor Sustainability Review
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What is the Coast Forest Sector Revitalization Initiative?
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CONTENTS
SPRING 2019 Volume 42 Number 1 www.tla.ca
Columns & Departments 7 8
TLA President's Message
Forest Sector Job Loss—Check the Facts Mike Richardson
TLA Executive Director's Message
A Moratorium on Harvesting Old Growth is Not the Answer David Elstone
10 Southern Interior Perspective
Why Join a Professional Association? Advocacy Todd Chamberlain
13 North West Perspective
Increased Log Exports in the Northwest Are the Result of Mill Closures— Not the Cause Trevor Jobb
14 Northern Interior Perspective
An Industry in Transition Paul Schuetz
17 Business Matters
Business Practices for Sustainable Contractors Part Four—What Are Your Financial Statements Telling You? Chris Duncan
18 Safety Report
WorkSafeBC Forestry High Risk Strategy Update for 2019 Budd Phillips
20
Cover
34 Making it Work: The TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show Jennifer Kramer
Features 20 Forest Community: Terrace Robin Brunet
23 The Culmination of the Contractor Sustainability Review Jim Girvan
27 A Common Vision for the Province Minister Doug Donaldson
31 What is the Coast Forest Sector Revitalization Initiative? Jim Girvan
38 Will Forestry Benefit from Professional Reliance Review? TLA Perspective
40 Working Relationships—Making it Work Robin Brunet
42 Making it Work in New Zealand Paul Schuetz
44 BC is Not in Business Without a Working Forest TLA Perspective
48 A Meeting with Minister Donaldson Jennifer Kramer
50 Is First Nations the Solution to Job Shortage? Ian MacNeill
Cover Photo: Brian Dennehy
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 3
The Truck Loggers Association 2019 Executive & Directors
Interior Logging Association 2018-2019 Board of Directors
Chairman Randy Spence Mike Richardson First Vice Chairman Len Gudeit Bill Nelson Second Vice Chairman Ron Volansky Jacqui Beban Past Chairman Reid Hedlund David Elstone Directors Guido Claudepierre Sig Kemmler Dennis Cook Dave McNaught John Drayton Jen Norie Randy Durante Clint Parcher Matt Edmondson Mark Ponting Frank Etchart Aaron Service Shane Garner Barry Simpson Scott Horovatin Dorian Uzzell Lennard Joe Matt Wealick Jeff Kineshanko Associate Directors Tyson Lambert Hedley Larsen Tim Lloyd Bill McDonald Brian Mulvihill Tim Menning Carl Sweet Lawrence Van De Leur General Manager Wayne Lintott Assistant Todd Chamberlain Editorial Board Jacqui Beban General Manager Chris Duncan David Elstone Administration Nancy Hesketh Jennifer Kramer Interior Logging Association Wayne Lintott 3204 - 39th Avenue Brian Mulvihill Vernon, BC V1T 3C8 Mike Richardson Tel: 250.503.2199 Fax: 250.503.2250 Dorian Uzzell
President Vice President Past President Executive Director Industrial Directors
E-mail: info@interiorlogging.org Website: www.interiorlogging.org
SPRING 2019 / VOLUME 42 / NUMBER 1 Editor Jennifer Kramer Editorial Consultant Jim Girvan Contributing Writers Robin Brunet
Todd Chamberlain Doug Donaldson Chris Duncan David Elstone Jim Girvan
TUG & BARGE
Trevor Jobb Jennifer Kramer Ian MacNeill Budd Phillips Mike Richardson Paul Schuetz
For editorial information, please contact the Truck Loggers Association: Tel: 604.684.4291 Email: trucklogger@tla.ca For advertising, please contact Advertising In Print: Tel: 604.681.1811 Email: info@advertisinginprint.com Truck LoggerBC magazine is published four times a year by the Truck Loggers Association, with content and support from the Interior Logging Association and the North West Loggers Association. Its editorial content seeks to reflect issues facing the industry and to provide readers with current information on BC’s forest industry. All rights reserved.
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ice.
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4 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
The Truck Loggers Association Suite 725-815 West Hastings Street Vancouver, BC V6C 1B4 E-mail: contact@tla.ca
Tel: 604.684.4291 Fax: 604.684.7134 Website: www.tla.ca
from the Editorial Board DESK...
W
elcome to the Spring 2019 issue of Truck LoggerBC. This issue provides an overview of the “Making it Work” themed sessions and exciting events from the TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show held in January. The convention summary article shares highlights through photographs including the Premier’s address, session speakers, the silent and live auction, scholarship recipients, winners of the trade show booth, and an introduction of the 2019-2020 Board and new Directors. We also include two articles that delve further into the two topics addressed by Premier Horgan and Minister Donaldson: the conclusion of the Contractor Sustainability Review, including the impact of the Premier’s announcement of the elimination of the fair market rate test, and the newly announced Coast Revitalization Initiative. The “Working Relationships—Making it Work” article summarizes the panel’s insightful discussion about how they are overcoming their relationships between contractors and major licensees, which is one of the biggest obstacles facing the forestry sector. The summary of keynote speaker Dale Ewers’ presentation, “Making it Work in New Zealand,” shares how innovative and strategic changes to his logging operations improved safety statistics and productivity.
In our ongoing effort to protect our working forests in the shadows of ENGOs’ high-profile efforts to ban old growth logging, the “BC is Not in Business Without a Working Forest” article provides the TLA’s perspective on the false claims and concerns they have raised. The TLA also provides its perspective on the regulations of the new Professional Governance Act (Bill 49) and its potential impact on timber harvesting contractors. Terrace is the featured forest community in this issue; the evolving city that intends to stay true to its forestry roots. Business Matters takes a look at what your financial statements are telling you, and the Safety Report provides WorkSafeBC’s Forestry High Risk Strategy update for 2019. As always, I trust you find this issue insightful and informative. If you have any feedback or comments, please contact our director of communications, Jennifer Kramer, at 604-684-4291 (extension 2) or by email at jennifer@tla.ca
Dorian Uzzell Editorial Board Chair
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Mike Richardson
TLA President’s MESSAGE
Forest Sector Job Loss—Check the Facts
I
t was another great year at the TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show. Judging by the calibre of speakers, the full room at each session, engaging question and answer periods, robust conversations and networking, and all of the great feedback I’ve heard from many of the more than 1,200 delegates who attended, this year was a resounding success.
to the TLA’s proposed solution for our skilled labour shortage. While it’s too late to be included in this year’s budget, we’re assured it will be considered in the fall. The Premier also publicly announced the new Coast Revitalization Initiative (CRI) (page 31). I’m happy to hear the government is dedicated to rebuilding a strong and healthy coastal forest sector; however, it was somewhat disappointing
While it is true log exports have risen in BC since 2000 and provide an easy target for the job loss rhetoric, it is not the entire story. The silent and live auction combined raised more than ever at over $150,000. Thank you to the donors and bidders for their generous contributions. I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank the TLA staff who worked tirelessly to ensure all three days were enjoyed by everyone. At our AGM, we said good-bye to three board members; George Lambert, Doug Sladey, and Adam Wunderlich, and I would like to thank them for dedicating their time and knowledge to the board. We also welcomed two new board members, Tyson Lambert of T-Mar Industries and Jen Norie of VIH Helicopters Ltd. This year’s convention theme, “Making it Work,” was the catalyst for each session’s topic, including the Premier’s address at the sold-out Leaders’ Luncheon. The highlight, of course, was the culmination of the Contractor Sustainability Review when the Premier announced the elimination of the fair rate market test (page 23), which drew a standing ovation from the more than 350 delegates who attended. I strongly believe this announcement will pave the way towards a positive change for contractor sustainability and the forestry industry overall. As a long-time advocate for the training tax credit, I was also very pleased to hear the government’s commitment
that their rationale for the CRI is based primarily on log exports and the jobs lost in the forest industry over the past 15 years, notionally suggesting that these jobs could be recreated with policy change aimed at a reduction in log exports and an increase in domestic processing. While it is true log exports have risen in BC since 2000 and provide an easy target for the job loss rhetoric, it is not the entire story. Based on TLA analysis, yes, log exports rose from 3 per cent of the provincial harvest to 9 per cent over 15 years and contributed to some job loss, but the bigger contributors to job loss were related to other industry changes over the same period. Putting industry changes together with the job loss statistics reported by Statistics Canada and the conclusion drawn is much different than typically reported: • A reduced harvest, primarily on the coast (down 34 per cent) following reductions to the AAC following reduction of the working forest land base, was responsible for 10 per cent of the job loss. • The reduced AAC and lower harvest resulted in mill closures accounting for another 17 per cent of job loss. • Increased productivity in wood manufacturing at BC sawmills, pulp
and paper mills accounts for another 38 per cent of job loss and these improvements contribute significantly to BC’s ability to remain competitive in the global marketplace. • Increased productivity in logging accounts for another 27 per cent of job loss and the increased mechanization within the industry has made it a lot safer. Combined, these specific changes point to the fact that 92 per cent of the Statistics Canada reported job loss between 2000 and 2015 in the BC forest industry were as a result of productivity improvement or mill closures following a reduction in the AAC. On the other side of the coin, a mere 4 per cent of job loss can be attributed directly to an increase in log exports with the balance lost in secondary manufacturing. As such, we caution the Premier that as the CRI is rolled out that realistic benchmarks for success are established. In the same vein, we also caution the government on their old growth strategy. Over the past year, I have been amazed at the amount of media coverage garnered by environmentalists protesting old growth logging, especially by how much that has been reported is inaccurate and catastrophizing information. One campaigner stated, “it’ll never grow back.” In fact, forestry is the only natural resource that is renewable; trees will always grow back. Our fear is that the new old growth strategy will result in further reduced AAC and more jobs lost. Our hope is the government will do their part to protect our working forests. Mike Richardson, President, TLA Tel: 250.203.2649 Email: mike@tsibass.ca
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 7
David Elstone
TLA Executive Director’s MESSAGE
A Moratorium on Harvesting Old Growth is not the Answer
I
am pleased to report that the TLA membership’s advocacy voice is resulting in change. At the 76th Annual TLA Convention & Trade Show, the Premier and Minister of Forests both finally revealed significant updates to the Contractor Sustainability Review (page 23). With the announced elimination of the fair market rate test and other significant policy changes, hopefully logging contractors will have a reasonable chance at achieving financial sustainability in their businesses. I’m also very pleased another top advocacy issue was addressed by the Premier, who acknowledged the current acute skilled labour shortage in the forest industry and announced his commitment to look at TLA proposed tax credit solutions to this critical problem. Additionally, government revealed its Coast Revitalization Initiative, which will bring changes to long-standing log export and post-harvest utilization policies. With the limited information available, I hope that those changes do not generate unintended consequences. Assuming these changes don’t actually result in a negative harvest response, contractors could benefit by handling upwards of an additional two million cubic metres through utilization changes in the Coastal region. However, as we have long advocated, the real solution lies in the underlying issue of consolidated tenure. While these issues have a huge impact on the forest industry, if we don’t have forests to harvest these policy changes will be moot. Our working forest has been reduced by 34 per cent over the last 15 years. The single best way to create jobs is to increase the harvest, or at least keep the amount of working forest we have today. In February, I was disheartened to learn the Sierra Club gained media attention after delivering 20,000 protest letters to the offices of Vancouver Island MLAs calling for a moratorium on old
8 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
growth timber harvesting. Notwithstanding whether those signatures even came from BC taxpayers and voters, it made me pause to think about the weight of those 20,000 voices in a province of four million. For any of the 140,000 contractors or forest workers who read about it,
kayakers, and wildlife viewing that rely on access to the “wild areas” by using forest service roads, all of which are built by loggers harvesting old growth forests and subsequently maintained by the forest industry for continued access. When we take a look at how far reaching the reliance and impact of our
The single best way to create jobs is to increase the harvest, or at least keep the amount of working forest we have today. I suspect they would question where those signatures came from given that the majority of BC’s population reside in urban areas and generally have very little connection or awareness of the resource sector and its significance to those smaller communities or the province as a whole. So, should the TLA submit its own petition? I would suggest it’s not necessary when you look at the evidence. Premier Horgan, Minister Donaldson and Minister Heyman need to take into consideration how the impact of land use planning for old growth forsakes the livelihoods of families in rural communities. A moratorium on harvesting old growth and a sole reliance on second harvest timber is not the answer. Jobs directly related to the forest industry on the Coast alone represent almost 20,000 workers. If each worker has a family of four, that equates to 80,000 people who would directly be affected by a moratorium on harvesting old growth. We also need to consider all of the indirect jobs and businesses associated with the industry that support our communities; like grocery stores, restaurants, and hotels; and the teachers employed to teach our youth; and the nurses and doctors keeping our population healthy. Often forgotten are the relationships between the forest sector and backcountry tourism for skiers, mountain bikers,
forest resource has on people, economic activity, and well-paying jobs, we can appreciate how important it is to continue harvesting old growth. It is simple. None of this would exist if it weren’t for a forest resource sector that includes harvesting old growth timber. It’s time we start remembering where our incomes come from. Where our services come from. Our working forest needs protecting from the efforts of a few that don’t have our provinces well-being in their best interest. As sustainable forest stewards of the public forest resource in this province, we actively conserve old growth timber. The Great Bear Rainforest Act was created for this exact purpose; Old Growth Management Areas were created for this purpose; and many more other forms of forest reserves and retention were created and maintained so we will never, ever run out of old growth timber. The Sierra Club should not make the news for sending 20,000 letters, they should make the news for threatening the financial livelihoods of British Columbians. David Elstone, RPF, Executive Director, TLA Tel: 604.684.4291 ext. 1 Email: david@tla.ca
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Todd Chamberlain
Southern Interior PERSPECTIVE
Why Join a Professional Association? Advocacy
S
ince joining the Interior Logging Association (ILA) just over a year ago, I have travelled from Smithers to Chetwynd, to Cranbrook and all points in between. During these trips I had the opportunity to meet with hundreds of people representing over a hundred contracting-related companies, ranging from individuals, to those who manage companies with over 100 employees. Regardless of size, they all face the same issues and look to associations like ours to assist them with their challenges. One question that is often asked of me is “Why Join” and what does the ILA do for its members? The answer is simple: advocacy. Advocacy is an act or process of supporting a cause or proposal. I can’t think of a better cause to support than the well-being of the forest industry and specifically the security of our contractor members. To put things in a little more context, the majority of rural communities in British Columbia are forest dependent, thousands of jobs are directly created through forestry and billions of dollars are generated for the provincial economy. Contractors, however, are being constantly pushed to the financial brink and don’t have the time needed to battle the issues that both directly and indirectly affect their businesses. The associations do! From my meetings over the past year, I have observed ILA members face the following issues: 1. Contractors are still operating with rates comparable to those earned in 2008 when the industry suffered a downturn and they were asked by their employers to take a rate cut to help them out. 2. Despite recent record-breaking profits by the major licensees, logging and hauling rates continue to be cut back.
10 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
3. The workforce is aging and no one
is entering the industry to take their place. 4. Relationships with the majors are weak and there seems to be a general lack of respect for the contracting community and their role is often looked at as replaceable. 5. Declining AACs in the Interior threaten everyone. 6. Bill 13 contracts and their value in today’s market are questioned. 7. We need to do a better job of promoting the benefits of our industry. 8. The two previous wildfire seasons will have long-lasting impacts; are we any better equipped for 2019? Of course, this is not a complete list of the advocacy topics we deal with every day, but we need to start somewhere. So, what has the ILA done this past year? One only needs to look at the Contractor Sustainability Review outcome. Premier Horgan’s announcement at the TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show regarding the CSR process is a great example of what the TLA, ILA and NWLA can achieve working together from an advocacy standpoint. While it did not address all contractor issues, it is a good start and collectively we need to continue the battle and advocate on behalf of all our members with the hope of shortening this list for 2019. I would like to take this opportunity to thank the TLA and its staff for their hospitality at this year’s convention and I am looking forward to seeing them and the NWLA at our annual convention from May 2 - 4 in Kamloops. I look forward to continuing our advocacy efforts both collectively and individually and being able to spend more time this coming year with our membership as I continue to travel the Interior to meet existing and prospective members.
I can also be reached at our office at 250-503-2199 or by e-mail at todd@ interiorlogging.org if you would like me to visit your worksite to discuss your concerns and how the ILA can advocate for you. Todd Chamberlain joined the Interior Logging Association (ILA) in March of 2018. Previously, he spent the past 25 years working in the Merritt area as a woodlands manager for a major forest licensee, managed a forestry consulting firm for one of the local First Nations communities and was the transportation manager for a large trucking company. Todd started in the forest industry in 1981, graduated from Selkirk College in Castlegar with a diploma in Forest Technology in 1985, and became a Registered Professional Technologist in 2005. He has worked in all regions of British Columbia and also in Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Northwest Territories.
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Trevor Jobb
North West PERSPECTIVE
Increased log exports in the Northwest are the result of mill closures— not the cause
I
n response to the Premier’s speech at the TLA convention, the solutions to maximizing value and jobs from our forests in the Northwest are more complex than stating a simple solution of limiting or reducing the opportunities for local operators to access the international log markets. To be clear, the increase in log exports in the Northwest is the result— not the cause—of mill closures and the economic reality of operating a manufacturing plant here. The ability to access both domestic and international log markets has sustained this region’s forest industry for the past 18 years since the closure of both Skeena Cellulose in 2001 and West Fraser’s Skeena Sawmills shortly thereafter followed by the permanent closure of the Eurocan Pulp & Paper Co. At that time, the northwest lost all domestic log markets. All that remained of the Northwest forest industry were the logging and road contractors, who had to adapt and develop their own log markets abroad. This allowed them to continue to provide jobs that supported small businesses and communities while at the same time providing a consistent and reliable log supply to local small sawmillers. Combined, the regional harvesting and small sawmiller sector directly employs well over 400 people. Local small mills have been able to source and compete for fibre from the harvesting sector at competitive rates and at rates that at the very least provide a reasonable rate of return for the loggers. This contrasts with large mills who because of their volume demands, believe they can set a price for logs that is, on average, below the combined cost of road building, logging and hauling. For domestic mills to expect to source logs below the cost of production is a business model that is flawed. The high cost of delivering logs in the Northwest
(on average currently estimated at $80 per cubic metre for the timber profile with all costs included) has resulted in previous wood products companies to either go broke or shut down their facilities. Simply put, they have not been able to compete globally and have failed. That has left the harvesting sector to pick up the pieces. For too long the harvesting sector has been expected to supply logs to the domestic pulp mills and sawmills below the cost of production. To meet the economic realities, we end up harvesting less timber, high grading our forests, creating fewer jobs and reducing the economic contribution to the communities in which we live and work. Offering prices below the costs of production is not sustainable for the financial health of the industry. In addition, the majority of forest tenures in the region are held by First Nations, community forests, and woodlot owners. Each needs to make a profit to support their business. The main purpose of the province’s support and creation of these businesses is to provide value back to the communities. The value is based on creating employment, capacity, economic diversification, and wealth. The ability to create that wealth for First Nations licensees is seen as critically important in providing for the social and cultural projects necessary for a component of the nation’s rebuilding process. Because the newly created forest licensees are operated as profit centres and not cost centres as most major licensees operate, the average delivered log cost for our region of $80 per cubic metre does not include a rate of return that is needed to meet the objectives of why those new licences were created in the first place. Needing to make a profit is a reality that demonstrates why the cost of logs for the larger mills will be higher than
their own delivered log cost from their own licences. The ability to access international markets is the most significant contributing factor related to the health of the forest industry and sustainability of the harvesting sector in the Northwest. To support the harvesting sector and forest licensees, we will need to adapt the following changes through government policy and regulations. • Maximize access to log markets for the Northwest forest industry and maximize value. • Return Order in Council (OIC) to the 35 per cent levels previously in place to ensure a level playing field in supply and price negotiations. • Establish OIC term for a rolling 5-year period to allow for investment certainty, and for harvesting sector and licensee market relationships. • Institute a fair market pricing system that recognizes the unique position of the forest industry log quality and costs in the Northwest and the limited domestic market. The forest industry in the Northwest has had a tough go of it, but we have always proven to be resourceful and have survived many of the challenges that have come our way. Provincial government recognition of the unique challenges of each region of this province should lead to development of policies and regulations that work to the benefit of all. From this we can build relationships that are economically sustainable. For domestic sawmills that have a business plan based on the real costs of log supply, this will ensure continued access to logs. When logs move, everyone benefits. Trevor Jobb has worked in the BC forest industry for over 40 years and is the current president of the NWLA.
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Paul Schuetz
Northern Interior PERSPECTIVE
An Industry in Transition
F
orestry in the Interior has been in a constant state of transition driven by economic and environmental influences since the beginning. The current factor driving a change in the way forest licensees operate in the Central Interior centres around a transition from salvaging relatively flat terrain forests devastated by the mountain pine beetle (MPB) to targeting forests on steeper slopes infested by spruce beetle and balsam bark beetle. These changes in operating focus and species priorities are forcing logging contractors to either adapt or risk being left out in the cold. Beginning in 2001, the BC Interior saw a rapid increase in its Allowable Annual Cut (AAC) in response to the MPB outbreak. The goal was to salvage as much timber as possible while it was still merchantable and restore affected areas to a productive state which would mitigate the depth of the eventual AAC downfall. Concurrently, Interior sawmills and logging contractors made changes to their operations in order to handle the extra volume provided to them through the AAC uplifts. By 2004, the AAC in the Prince George TSA reached almost 15 million cubic metres—though the economic downturn starting in 2007 would only see about 70 per cent of this harvested. In 2011, the AAC started to decline as a result of the subsistence in the MPB epidemic, and the continued inability of the industry to harvest the AAC due to lack of sawmilling capacity. However, the AAC projected for 2022 and beyond will be less than half of the volume available to the forest industry in the mid-2000s. This reduction in timber supply will continue the trend in sawmill closures that commenced in 2008 with the US housing collapse. These forecast sawmill closures will force contractors to become more competitive when bidding on new contracts; require them to invest in new technology in order to operate on the differing terrain, and in some cases, may require contractors to relocate.
14 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
The end of the MPB epidemic has not only resulted in a decline in AACs throughout the Interior, it has also forced loggers to transition their harvesting techniques. To operate successfully in response to the transition to steeper terrain and different species, contractors must acquire the expertise, equipment and technology to safely and successfully operate in substantially more challenging terrain. More time must be spent training, and more money has to be spent on equipment in order for contractors to stay competitive in their business. To alleviate some of the negative impacts of this transition, there are a number of strategies that can be implemented by logging contractors, licensees and government so that everyone benefits through the transition: 1. Contractors can form good working relationships with licensees, invest in new equipment and technology to handle the steeper ground and bigger trees, and train employees on new technology to operate safely on tougher terrain. 2. Licensees can provide longer-term contracts, which would go a long way to ensuring contractor sustainability and provide the financial security necessary for logging companies to make investments in new equipment. Harvesting rates should also reflect contractors’ operating costs associated with new training and new equipment. Operational planning of cutblocks and roads should be improved in the field, and strategies should be implemented that are specific to the more challenging terrain, such as proposing landings in favour of roadside processing. 3. The government’s recent commitment announced by the Premier to explore TLA proposed solutions to the skilled labour shortage (i.e. a training tax credit) will also go a long way in helping contractors recover the cost of training employees on new equipment for working on
steeper slopes and filling seats in equipment sitting empty today. The Contractor Sustainability Review identified transparency and communication as being necessary to forming productive and long-lasting relationships between licensees and contractors. As New Zealand logging contractor Dale Ewers explained during his presentation at the 76th Annual TLA Convention & Trade Show, forming good working relationships with licensees can prove to be profitable to both parties, and can greatly improve the safety of workers through innovations and advancements in the way logging is done. This win-win situation could be realized through long-term agreements that would allow contractors to reinvest in their company without having to worry about whether their costs can be recovered over time. During this time of never-ending change, a move beyond the culture that had forest companies squeezing contractors for their last penny must start with government, licensees and contractors working together to make the transition as smooth as possible. Paul Schuetz has spent more than 20 years working in the Northern Interior forests with Industrial Forestry Service Ltd. His experience in timber cruising, road engineering and crew management give him unique insights into contractor issues in the north. If you have an issue you want to bring to the TLA, call Paul at 250-564-4115.
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Business MATTERS
Chris Duncan
Business Practices for Sustainable Contractors Part Four—What are your financial statements telling you?
I
t can be tough for contractors to find the time to fully analyse their financial statements and understand the story they are telling them about the present condition of their business or future course. Besides the time involved, another major factor is many contractors do not have any training or experience in understanding financial statements. One way to get the most from your financial data is to meet with your accountant on a regular basis and ensure you are asking the right questions, including what the key things are that they look for when analysing your statements. Balance Sheet Your balance sheet is a snapshot of your assets and liabilities at the end of each fiscal year. Despite being good to see where you land at the end of each year, the value of that snapshot diminishes as time passes. By the time you meet to go over it with your accountant, depending on the collection of your accounts receivable, asset purchases, taking on new debt and cash outlays it may be completely irrelevant and you would be better off looking at a copy from your internal accounting system. Comparing your current assets to your current liabilities helps to measure your ability to pay off short-term obligations. The higher the number, the better your ability to cover short-term debts. Another key ratio to look at is your total liabilities over your total assets. This tells you how many of the company’s assets are financed with debt versus self financed. The lower the number the less reliant your company is on third-party debt. Lenders review both ratios when making a decision to lend to your business. Income Statement Your income statement is a report of how your business did during the year. Its relevance does not diminish over time like the balance sheet. If a contractor is going to look at one statement in detail it should be the income statement.
Presenting a contractor’s income statement in different ways can create some insightful analysis. Ideally a contractor’s income statement should be broken out into the direct costs of production and administration costs. Dividing the income statement components by production volume shows your financial performance on a cubic metre basis. This helps to determine your overall profitability as well as profitability by phase. It allows a contractor to focus on areas where they may be able to make more money by focusing on being more efficient. It also allows a contractor to compare their logging rate to their costs. Shortfalls in any of these areas require immediate attention. Key ratios to do with your income statement that lenders and owners should focus on is the company’s operating income over interest expense and operating income over interest and principal portions of debt. Both are measures of the company’s ability to make its debt payments and stay current with their lenders. Profitability The other area a contractor should be focusing on is the profitability of their business. This isn’t just the bottom line on the financial statements but how it relates to the revenue, costs, invested equity and assets of the business. Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) EBITDA measures profitability without the effects of financing or capital assets against the prior year or industry benchmarks, as it focuses on operating profits. For example, when a company obtains financing to purchase new equipment it incurs higher interest and amortization costs and a lower net income than a company which runs older assets, even though these new assets might have higher efficiency and capacity. Comparing EBITDA will allow companies to focus on the operating profitability that
management was able to generate on sales regardless of financing. Return on Assets (ROA) Return on assets is calculated as net operating income divided by total assets. A higher percentage is more desirable. ROA measures how profitable your assets are. This is valuable when comparing ROA between different projects or investments that your company is involved in or against an industry benchmark, as it identifies which assets are generating the most income. An example of the usefulness of this measure is to compare the ROA realized by operations versus other investments. Realizing a low or declining ROA, would indicate to management that it should assess whether the assets may be put to better use elsewhere, such as into new assets or operation to facilitate growth of the business, or into higher-yield investments. Conclusion These examples are just a fraction of what your financials can tell you. Every contractor will have a different area they are interested in. It is good to ask others in the industry what they focus on. By spending some time with your numbers you can increase your profits. Chris Duncan, CPA, CA, is a Business Advisor with MNP’s Private Enterprise group who specializes in real estate, construction and forestry businesses. Based in Duncan and serving clients across Vancouver Island, Chris draws on his unique background to deliver industry-specific advice to help business owners stay in compliance, make informed decisions and achieve their goals. Chris can be reached at 250.748.3761 or chris.duncan@mnp.ca.
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 17
Budd Phillips
Safety REPORT
WorkSafeBC Forestry High Risk Strategy Update for 2019
F
orestry by its nature continues to be a high-risk industry; its serious-injury rate of 1.2 (per 100 workers) in 2017 was four times the provincial average. That’s why WorkSafeBC’s 2018-20 Forestry High Risk Strategy (FHRS) continues to target the highest-risk activities in harvesting: manual tree falling, log transportation, cable-yarding operations, mechanized harvesting including tethered-equipment operations, and silviculture. The goal is simple: to reduce the serious-injury rate through inspections that may include consultation with workers and employers as well as education. Falling Manual tree falling had the highest serious-injury rate of any occupation in forestry in 2017 at 6.6—making it, once again, the single most hazardous job in
BC. Although injury rates have declined over the last decade, conditions are also changing, including operations increasingly moving into steeper terrain, equipment advances are transforming how some work gets done, new fallers are entering the workplace, and the established workforce is getting older, with an average age of 57. In 2019, WorkSafeBC’s dedicated falling team will focus their inspections on employers with new-faller training sites, a history of injuries, or repeat compliance issues, supporting the development of effective, sustainable health and safety programs. These inspections will also assess the level of qualified supervision of hand fallers questioning if the type and frequency of supervisory inspection reflect the level of risk at the falling site? Is the
qualified supervisor ensuring the worker is appropriately assessing risks and following established safe work procedures to reduce or eliminate them? Also, do the fallers and supervisors know when to say stop or no to work that is too risky? Officers will look at new faller training programs, falling practices including cuts, danger-tree and windfall management, unavoidable brushing practices, and roadside or skid-trail debris hazards that have been created and left for the hand faller. They will support these inspections with outreach to workers and employers and collaborative problem-solving. Phase Congestion In 2019, the FHRS will add a survey tool that will assess how phase integration
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18 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
is being managed, asking if the employers at the site understand key risks that can occur, such as phase congestion. Congestion occurs when the phases of timber harvesting overlap, resulting in the overcrowding of work activities and potentially significant risks to workers. Poor planning and scheduling, as well as inadequate communication among workers, employers and contractors have been identified as contributing factors. To help assess these risks, WorkSafeBC has developed a tool that will be used by officers conducting logging inspections in the coming months. A simple questionnaire will enable them to identify risks along with controls that are critical to their mitigation. Officers will seek input from employers on how to make the tool most effective, and ultimately make a version available to employers for their own use. Log Hauling Log transportation has eclipsed manual falling when it comes to worker fatalities in the last two years, unfortunately, making log hauling, with a serious-injury
rate of 1.9, one of the highest-risk occupations in forestry. Serious injuries typically result from motor vehicle incidents and loading/ unloading activities, but WorkSafeBC has also seen a steady rise in musculoskeletal claims for shoulder and arm injuries related to throwing wrappers. Officers will inspect these operations for driving and road assessment; loading, off-loading and securing practices; maintenance work practices including lockout, access, and egress; cab guards; and binder use and installation. Mechanized Equipment With mechanized harvesting, the biggest risks come from maintenance work, getting on and off machinery, equipment loss of stability, and congestion. Therefore inspections will focus on maintenance work plans and lockout procedures, three-point-contact procedures, steepslope assessment plans, safe operation of traction-assist and tethered equipment, and site planning and layout.
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Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 19
Forest Community: Terrace
By Robin Brunet
F
or anyone tuning into YouTube promotional videos or other social media channels, Terrace is portrayed as a trendy destination for mountain bikers, skiers, kayakers, gourmands, art lovers— essentially, people who love the finer things in life. But not represented in these promotions is forestry, the industry that gave Terrace the economic wherewithal to evolve as a lifestyle destination. Nonetheless, forestry remains an enormous source of pride for locals and civic leaders—and something that will allow this city of 12,500 to continue to evolve in the future. In fact, Mayor Carol Leclerc of Terrace laughs in astonishment when informed that some outdated websites portray her hometown as a place where once-thriving mills are moribund and forestry is on the decline. “Nothing could be further from the truth,” she replies, adding that while Skeena Cellulose's sawmill closure between 1997 and 2008 impacted the regional economy, today as Skeena Sawmills and under the leadership of president and CEO Teddy Cui, it is one of the major sawmills in BC producing hemlock and balsam products for the Pacific Rim and the North American markets. “And it’s a major employer for us, in addition to all sorts of specialty millers and custom cutters thriving here.”
20 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
Forestry activity in the region also provides opportunities for First Nations. “Of the 22 licensees in this district, the largest tenure holder is Coast Tsimshian Resources with an annual cut of over 500,000 cubic metres,” says Danielle Myles, manager, economic development for Terrace. In addition, Kalum Ventures (the Kitsumkalum First Nation) and Kitselas First Nation have tenure and run their own logging companies that strive to hire community members and create a flow of revenue for their nations. When Truck LoggerBC paid Terrace a visit in February, Leclerc and Myles were busy promoting their city not just as a service, education, and medical hub of the Kitimat-Stikine region (a distinction it has enjoyed for decades), or as perfectly positioned to take advantage of the billions of dollars in major developments occurring in LNG (thanks to the announcement last year that the LNG Canada/Royal Dutch Shell liquefied natural gas plant will finally be moving forward in nearby Kitimat); they were also envisioning Terrace as being on the cusp of a tremendous new wave of forestryrelated activity. Leclerc explains, “our positive outlook is partly due to the fact that the second growth timber in the Coast Mountain Natural Resource District is now coming available for harvest.” These second growth stands are less than 100 years old,
dense, low in pulp, and easily accessible. Better still, according to the 2015 provincial government study Forest Investment Opportunities in Northwest BC, a significant level of second growth timber will be available for decades. “Specifically, 600,000 cubic metres per year can be harvested, and the sustainability rate has been calculated at 30 to 40 years,” says Myles. The prospect of harvesting this wood coincides with Skeena Sawmills in February opening its new pellet plant that has a capacity to process 75,000 tonnes of wood waste annually. “Currently, Skeena can process logs up to a four inch top, and it will be able to take smaller sizes in pulp log grades when the pellet plant is fully operational,” says Myles. The plant, Skeena BioEnergy, is part of a $40 million retrofit for the sawmill, which produces 250,000 cubic metres of wood annually. It consists of one belt dryer, two infeed lines, three pelletizers, and one cooling tower, all of which will produce pellets from residuals including planer shavings, sawdust, hog fuel, and bark. According to Skeena Sawmills’ vice-president Roger Keery, it may be possible for the plant to also receive feedstock from neighbouring sawmills or biomass harvesters, depending on the demonstrated capacity of the facility. Myles and Leclerc are eager to cite other factors contributing to forestry’s
Photo courtesy of City of Terrace, Aaron Whitfield Photography
promising future in their neck of the woods. The latter says, “we have a secondary manufacturing facility ready for re-activation near the Skeena Sawmills, with two kilns on site and ample room for milling, warehousing, and loading. The kilns are critical, because one of the challenges of our industry up here is that the wood is wetter than in other districts; the kilns would make it lighter and more affordable to ship.” Reportedly, prospective buyers have been lined up, and a sale is expected in the near future. First Nations opportunities are also promising. “Kitsumkalum and Kitselas are in advanced treaty negotiations, a focus of which has been on identifying lands for future forestry operations,” says Myles. Yet another element driving the duo’s enthusiasm is the new 2,400-acre Skeena Industrial Development Park, a few minutes from Terrace’s downtown core. “Our intention is that this park will support the growth of the forestry industry,” says Leclerc. “We’re putting in roads and utilities, and there are opportunities for small and larger scale companies to lease or purchase land for manufacturing facilities.” If the second growth opportunities are fully exploited, Skeena BioEnergy operates as intended, and companies flock to the development park, it would in a sense be a return to the glory days of forestry
for Terrace, once known as the cedar pole capital of the world. However, no longer will the city’s fortunes be tied exclusively to the resource. One benefit of Skeena Cellulose’s prolonged closure was that it prompted the fast-tracking of economic diversification, and the focus on forestry prospects notwithstanding, Leclerc and Myles are equally hard at work expanding other sectors such as tourism, on the strength of the region’s world-class fishing, exceptional downhill and backcountry skiing, white-water kayaking and rafting, and golfing. Terrace is also being promoted as the premier spot in Northwest BC to do business, and justifiably so: the city is centrally located at the crossroads of Highways 16, 37, and 113, and its close proximity to three deep water ports, rail service, and a bustling airport allows it to take advantage of other industries in Kitimat-Stikine, foremost of which is the LNG Canada project, which, at $40 billion, is the largest private sector investment in Canada’s history and will bring in $23 billion in revenue over the next 40 years (which in turn will be invested in healthcare, schools, childcare, and other key public services). Guiding this growth is the City of Terrace Economic Development Strategy (EDS), which built upon other planning documents and initiatives and was put into effect four years ago with
several priority objectives, including working with neighbouring First Nations and supporting a thriving downtown. “Working with Kermodei Tourism to grow the number of visitors to this region and creating the Skeena Industrial Development Park were also identified early on as priorities,” says Leclerc. One of the most promising outcomes of these efforts is an influx of new blood to Terrace. “More and more young professionals in the 20 to 40 age bracket are coming here to live,” she says. “This is partly due to our affordability as well as the lifestyle, and our institutes of higher learning—the University of Northern British Columbia and Coast Mountain College—play a huge role in fuelling this demographic.” As Terrace continues to evolve, Leclerc, who was born and raised in the city and whose husband was a logging contractor until the 1990s, intends to preside over the growth while staying true to the region’s forestry roots. “For decades, people in our sector knew what newcomers are just discovering about us: that we’re a fantastic place to work and live,” she says. “And it’s all going to get even better. We’re very much looking forward to the future.”
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 21
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22 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
All photos: Brian Dennehy
THE Culmination of the Contractor Sustainability Review
By Jim Girvan
T
he results of the three-year Contractor Sustainability Review (CSR) process culminated at the TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show with announcements made by Premier John Horgan and Minister Doug Donaldson. During the Leaders’ Lunch, the Premier announced the elimination of the fair market rate test. In the “Executive Meeting with the Minister” panel, Minister Donaldson outlined several pending changes to the Timber Harvesting Contractor and Subcontractor regulation (otherwise known as Bill 13), rate data sharing, cut control letters, forest harvest planning and best practices, many of which came from the 13 recommendations originally proposed in the CSR last spring. The resulting policy changes announced at the convention were developed during the last phase of the CSR through a series of facilitated conversations by Dan Miller, former provincial Premier. Mr. Miller was tasked with identifying where there was consensus among contractors and licensees on the recommendations and making final recommendations to the Minister for implementation. Paraphrasing the Minister’s speech and the BC government’s news release, the following describes the intended policy
changes that mark the conclusion of the Contractor Sustainability Review process. As you read these pending policy changes, keep in mind that they hopefully will address what was identified in the CSR, which was a need to change adversarial relationships, to be replaced with commercial relationships characterized by transparency, accountability, and two-way communications of shared objectives and collaboration. Rate Models A focus on the use of rate models as part of rate negotiations has become the central theme of the policy changes being made. The Timber Harvesting Contractor and Subcontractor regulation will be amended requiring the parties to jointly develop rate models, which will include factors that will influence the calculation of the rate. Examples of such rate factors that are currently typical of rate models in use are: equipment rates, productivity estimates, labour cost, add-ons, overhead, profit/risk and total volume. The regulation will be amended to allow the reassessment of rates in recognition of changed circumstances that underlined the original rate model assumptions.
Arbitration When two parties enter into an arbitration process it is an indication that the business relationship has faltered (e.g. a last resort to seek resolution). Under the current Bill 13 process, arbitrations are considered onerous, costly, and defective based on the TLA’s view that the fair market rate test used by arbitrators to resolve rate disputes is biased towards outcomes that favour licensees. It was the TLA’s view that the fair market rate test is one of the single largest impediments to contractors achieving sustainability simply because there is no such thing as a fair market for timber harvesting services in BC. As such it should be no surprise that the Premier received a standing ovation when he announced the elimination of the fair market rate test in favour of an approach that relies on rate models which will be engrained in the regulation. This is a significant change to the process that the Ministry hopes will become standard practice for all contractors, not solely just for the benefit of Bill 13 contractors. It is the TLA’s view that no longer will the majors be able to set rates based on comparables that often times were simply not comparable to the setting under consideration, but were said to be the industry market rate. Looking forward,
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 23
site specific data will have to be incorporated into models used to predict sustainable rates.
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ments of the regulation to focus on rate model factors as the basis for disputes, and that the arbitration process will be
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24 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
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dramatically streamlined to a muchshortened timeframe to reach a decision, premised on a new requirement to produce concise summary submissions by the contractor and licensee. Data Access One new recommendation from Miller that was not included in the original 13 recommendations is for the Ministry to collect mandatory data (of contract rates) to improve transparency and awareness of harvesting rate information. In theory, it would help raise the knowledge base of the industry (contractor and licensee alike), and hopefully reduce the likelihood of disputes. While the details still need to be worked out, one concern the TLA and the other logging associations have collectively voiced is that the specific nature of individual logging plans result in specific rates associated with that logging plan. So, without a clear understanding of the assumptions that went into that mandatory reported rate, using it as a comparable rate to other contracts is potentially fraught with challenges.
Best Practices Guide Another initiative that came out of the Miller facilitated sessions was a recommendation to develop a best practices guide to be jointly developed by licensees and contractors with government support to provide guidance for planning, rate model and arbitration. Outside of regulation changes, more work will be put towards harvest planning, sharing of cut control letters and increased use of Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR). Although it is clear that there are no silver bullets to contractor sustainability, the elimination of the fair market rate test, while subtle in nature for those unfamiliar with the arbitration process, is a huge step in the right direction. Not all of the 13 recommendations proposed in the CSR were brought forward by Dan Miller in his own submission to the Minister, which we were disappointed to see; however, for the most part, the TLA sees these changes as a step in the right direction with respect to contractor sustainability.
It should become abundantly clear to contractors and licensees alike that to install transparency and accountability so as to rebuild business-to-business relationships, a greater reliance on the use of data will be key. Looking forward, there is still work to be done to translate the announced policy changes into a working regulation and to facilitate the development of a best practices guide and rate database. On the regulatory changes side, expectations are that the fall 2019 sitting of the legislature is when the changes will be formalized. As for the best practices guide, all parties are anxious to begin the work. As stated by Minister Donaldson at the convention, “we all need each other� and hopefully these changes will result in improved sustainability of contractors and a competitive forest sector overall.
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26 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
A Common Vision for the Province By Doug Donaldson Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development
T
hank you for inviting me back to give you an update on ministry activities since January in advance of the ILA's 61st Annual Conference & Trade Show. At the January 2019 TLA convention, I had the pleasure, along with Premier Horgan of unveiling our government’s Coast Forest Sector Revitalization Initiative. The challenges are different in the Interior than they are on the Coast, but we have a common vision for the entire province: a forest sector made up of successful and innovative large and small companies that can create and maintain good jobs and generate wealth from our forests to support healthy communities. Our Interior forests have suffered firsthand from the effects of climate change— most notably from wildfires and pests, such as the mountain pine beetle, spruce beetle and Douglas-fir beetle. However, some of the policy changes that we announced to revitalize the Coast, will apply in the Interior, such as the creation of fibre recovery zones to encourage better fibre utilization and decreased waste. This will be good for the environment and will make sure that economically viable fibre that is currently left behind will now be used to create and sustain jobs. In February, I was able to announce $10 million in Forest Enhancement Society funding to nine projects that would remove over 1 million cubic metres of waste from the bush and redirect to higher end products ranging from cants, to pellets to hogfuel. These projects will help reduce wildfire risk, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions—since the wood waste would have likely been burnt instead. If all the fibre was lodgepole pine, the volume of carbon dioxide emissions avoided is equivalent to removing 41,800 passenger vehicles off the road for one year. This $10 million is in addition to the $163 million that the Forest Enhancement Society has already allocated to
projects around the province to reduce wildfire risk, improve damaged forests, improve wildlife habitat, increase fibre use from damaged forests and treat forests to improve the management of greenhouse gases. As part of Budget 2019, our government also increased the base budget for fighting fires by 58 per cent to $101 million per year. This recognizes the increased costs of fighting wildfires. While some may argue that it isn’t enough, it’s also important to remember that the BC Wildfire Service has the statutory authority to spend what is necessary to keep British Columbians safe. This amount also recognized that wildfire costs are unpredictable—for example, in 2011, wildfire costs were $53.5 million, but reached to nearly $650 million in 2017. The increase in base funding will enhance the BC Wildfire Service’s response capacity by hiring more crews and will also increase spending on wildfire prevention activities. In addition, we’re providing another $10 million to the Community Resiliency Investment Program, which we launched with $50 million in September 2018. This program provides wildfire risk reduction funding to local governments and First Nations and enhances wildfire risk reduction activities funded by the Forest Enhancement Society. I would again like to thank all logging contractors who provided their assistance during the 2018 wildfire season. Every year, the BC Wildfire Service relies on the skill and expertise of forestry contractors and heavy equipment operators to help slow the spread of wildfires and protect communities, infrastructure and natural resources. Contractors play a vital part in helping the BC Wildfire Service in fighting fires and I know BC Wildfire Service is looking at providing more training to better integrate contractors into wildfire fighting efforts.
For the last few years, I know contractors’ number one concern has been sustainability. To that end, I’m pleased that after a multi-phase two-year review, that we’re able to move forward on implementing recommendations from the logging contractor sustainability review. These are the recommendations that were agreed to by both licensees and contractors: • Improving transparency by requiring the parties to jointly develop rate models; • Improving work predictability and mutual recognition of circumstances where rates can be reassessed; • Establishing a timely and effective arbitration process based on the rate model; • Mandatory data collection to improve access to information; and, • Assisting contractors and licensees in developing a best practices’ guide for good business practices that will also foster good business relationships. As you know, ministry staff have already started working with logging association and licensee representatives in developing the necessary regulatory amendments. Healthy relationships between contractors and licensees are crucial to make the sector work more effectively. Economically sustainable contractors and licensees are crucial to maintaining the forest sector as a primary driver of the BC economy—and the lynchpins keeping it all together are good relationships and working together. We all want to ensure a resilient, sustainable forest sector in BC. I look forward to sharing more with you at your 61st annual convention in Kamloops!
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 27
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TICKET & DISPLAY REGISTRATION
AGENDA & EVENTS PRICING THURSDAY, MAY 2, 2019 “CREATING SAFETY CHAMPIONS”
N/C
8:00 am – 4:00 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel For the full agenda and Pre-Registration visit: http://www.bcforestsafe.org/node/3242 9:30 – 10:30 am Brain Health & Safety 11:00 am – 12:00 pm Supervisor Skills for Managing Workplace Impairment – Part 1 12:00 – 1:00 pm LUNCH 1:00 – 2:00 pm Supervisor Skills for Managing Workplace Impairment – Part 2 2:00 – 2:30 pm Helicopter Emergency Medical Response 3:00 – 3:45 pm Pinnacle Renewable Energy’s Safety Champions Program 3:45 – 4:00 pm Wrap Up
Description
Qty.
Price
INTERIOR SAFETY CONFERENCE
N/C
N/C
(May 2) Pre-Register at: http://www.bcforestsafe.org/node/3242 MEET & GREET (May 2)
X $55.00
BREAKFAST (May 3)
X $30.00
ILA AGM (May 3) LADIES EVENT (WINE TOUR)
X $15.00
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER & DANCE (May 3) Featuring: Shawn Lightfoot Band
X $70.00
Display Space Requested & Costs
4:00 – 7:00 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel
ILA DIRECTORS’ MEETING
4:00 – 5:30 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel
8’ X 10’ INSIDE DISPLAY
X $800.00
15’ X 30’ OUTSIDE DISPLAY
X $500.00
$55.00
Order Sub-total:
6:00 – 10:00 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel
FRIDAY, MAY 3, 2019 BREAKFAST
Tax #107510125
$30.00
7:30 – 9:30 am Coast Kamloops Hotel
ILA ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING (ILA Members Only) N/C
9:30 am – 4:30 pm Powwow Grounds 10:30 am – 4 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel
CREDIT CARD #: E-MAIL FOR RECEIPT:
Exhibitors must be Registered by April 19th
$60.00
11:30 am – 1:30 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel
Lunch Guest Speaker: Honourable Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development LADIES EVENT “WINE TOUR” $15.00 1:15 – 4:30 pm Bus from Coast Kamloops Hotel
SEMINARS
N/C
1) “Obtaining Information from Government; using the Harvest Billing System and the Freedom of Information Act” 2:00 – 3:00 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel Presenters: John Drayton, Gibraltar Law Group Wendy Sherman, Gudeit Bros. Contracting Ltd. 2) “Finding Solutions in the Haze (Cannabis Legalization)” 3:00 – 4:00 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel Presenter: Dave Earl, President & CEO British Columbia Trucking Association
FRIDAY NIGHT DINNER & DANCE
Total:
EXPIRY DATE:
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION FRIDAY LUNCHEON
5% GST:
PAYMENT MAY BE PAID BY VISA, MASTERCARD, AMERICAN EXPRESS OR CHEQUE
N/C
8:30 – 10:00 am Coast Kamloops Hotel
INSIDE & OUTSIDE DISPLAYS
N/C X $60.00
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION
MEET & GREET
N/C
FRIDAY LUNCHEON (May 3)
No Refunds after April 22, 2019
Company Name Contact Address City
Province
Postal Code
Name Tags: (please print neatly)
$70.00
6:00 – 11:30 pm Coast Kamloops Hotel Featuring: Shawn Lightfoot Band
SATURDAY MAY 4, 2019 INSIDE & OUTSIDE DISPLAYS
N/C
9:30 am – 3:00 pm Powwow Grounds
REGISTRATION INFORMATION Register Online: www.interiorlogging.org Or Mail / Fax to:
INTERIOR LOGGING ASSOCIATION Attention: Nancy Hesketh 3204 – 39th Ave., Vernon, BC, V1T 3C8 Phone: 250-503-2199 • Fax: 250-503-2250 Or Email: nancy@interiorlogging.org
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 29
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30 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
All photos: Brian Dennehy
What is the Coast Forest SECTOR Revitalization Initiative? By Jim Girvan
I
n the summer of 2018, the BC government invited forest industry leaders to a meeting in Vancouver to lay out their vision for a revitalized coastal forest industry and to seek their input. The meeting where the Coast Revitalization Initiative (CRI) was first discussed, together with the planned stakeholder consultation period, implementation process and timeline, was attended by close to 50 invited industry stakeholders, First Nations, union heads and association leaders including the TLA together with Minister Donaldson and several other senior government representatives. As a prelude to the initiative, the government provided their perspectives on the issues facing the BC coast and their objectives for undertaking this initiative. From their perspective, the problems on the coast are evidenced by declines in industry related jobs, lumber production and fibre supply; a continued reliance on log exports to support the financial well-being of the industry (a reliance on cedar); the need for increased First Nations participation in all aspects
of the industry; and too much avoidable waste left in the forests after harvest. The symptoms of those problems are varied including a dulled incentive to invest in second-growth processing assets, a failure to harvest the full forest profile on a consistent basis, a fragmentation of fibre flow, land-use (working forest land base) losses that have led to a reduction of the AAC and the consolidated control of the forest resources through tenure. It was made clear that government wanted to work with stakeholders to come up with sensible plans to address these problems in ways that met the government objectives, including getting a fair return on its rent, more domestic processing of harvested logs and in turn, increased jobs, longer-term community stability, a profitable diverse industry and greater participation in the industry by First Nations. After almost six months of industry consultations and review, Premier Horgan announced at the TLA’s 76th Convention & Trade Show that his government is going to make policy changes to increase the processing of BC logs
on the Coast and to reduce wood waste by redirecting it to BC’s pulp and paper mills. In summary, the CRI has five main goals: • Rebuilding solid wood and secondary industries to ensure more BC logs and fibre are processed in BC. • Improving harvest performance to ensure more fibre is available for domestic mills, including the pulp and paper sector. • Maintaining a credible auction system by taking steps to ensure bids on timber sale licences are independently made. • Fostering stronger business-tobusiness relationships between BC Timber Sales, major licensees and First Nations. • Restoring public confidence through amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act. “Government is taking steps to reverse a systemic decline that has taken place in the coast forest sector over most of the last two decades. We’re committed to rebuilding a strong and healthy coastal forest sector for British Columbians,”
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said Premier Horgan in the related press release. “Through the forest policy reforms, we will see more logs and fibre processed in BC, supporting BC workers, their families and communities.” “We can no longer apply yesterday’s thinking to today’s challenges,” said Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. “We need to shift our approach away from the status quo and create markets for waste fibre that, until now, has been left in harvest areas. We will continue to work with all forest-sector participants so together we
can enjoy the benefits from a stronger coastal forest sector.” Effective July 1, 2019, the fee charged for log exports will be revised based on harvest economics. New criteria for log exports from certain geographic areas, based on the same local harvesting economics and subject to engagement and consultation with First Nations will be developed. Changes to waste policy will be designed to redirect some of the approximately two million cubic metres of wood waste from the coastal harvest to pulp and paper producers and the bioproducts/bioenergy sector, supporting
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CleanBC’s renewed bioenergy strategy. A coastal fibre recovery zone will be established where penalties will apply for leaving waste in excess of new lower waste benchmarks in harvested areas. Over the next year, changes will also be made to increase penalties for late reporting of waste. To increase First Nations participation in the forest sector, and to directly receive their input at the beginning of the forest management process, BC Timber Sales will engage with interested First Nations and other licensees in collaborative, area-based planning. This will create efficiencies and better landscapelevel planning and forest management. BC Timber Sales will also work with interested First Nations and licensees in business arrangements that would see all parties sharing timber volume, expertise, and/or capital and all parties sharing decision-making and mutual benefits. BC Timber Sales will maintain its role of auctioning about 20 per cent of the province’s allowable annual cut to support the market-based timber pricing system. To increase public trust and confidence in forest-sector decision-making, this spring, the ministry will introduce amendments to the Forest and Range Practices Act to improve the public input process and increase transparency. The government will also review the effectiveness of the private managed forest land framework. However, while the goals of the program appear straightforward, the solutions may not be. For example, StatsCan data confirms that over 45,000 jobs have been lost in the BC forestry industry since 2000 as was detailed by the Premier in his speech at the TLA convention. However, in the same period, changes in the industry have also occurred including significant reductions in the coastal AAC and improvements in both logging and wood products manufacture productivity. Each of these factors led to job losses. And while job losses were being cited as being the motivating factor for implementation of these new policy initiatives, it would be unrealistic of government to expect re-creation of jobs lost as a result of AAC reductions, efforts to improve global manufacturing efficiency and falling market demand (estimated to be a total of 80 per cent of all jobs lost).
The same holds true for expectations of increases in milling capacity. Current analysis shows that with no coastal industry capacity changes or any reduction in log exports, log demand from all industry sectors almost equals the available coastal supply of logs (AAC) within the next few years. This suggests that any new manufacturing capacity raw material must come from a direct reduction in high valued log exports. This points to the fact that despite log exports, the industry is already close to its capacity to process the available AAC. At the same time, the cost to harvest trees on the BC coast has steadily risen as logging moves to steeper and more remote areas. As a result, “changes to log export policy may have the unintended consequences of rendering some parts of the coastal forest land base unprofitable to harvest,” cautions David Elstone, TLA executive director. “Should this occur, the annual harvest will fall, and bring less fibre to domestic mills, contrary to the revitalization objectives. After all, the current industry has evolved to rely on log exports as the cost of logging has risen, particularly when lumber markets have softened. This means that much of the harvesting and log trade activity is based on exporting some portion of what we harvest. It is understandable that the nervousness of the industry is significant as these new policies are announced.” On the other hand, it is true that over the past five years, post-harvest total waste (avoidable and unavoidable) exceeded
more than two million cubic metres annually while the pulp and paper sectors faced residual chip and pulp log shortfalls. Perhaps this initiative will help resolve this dichotomy. The elephant in the room is consolidation of coastal log control, a longtime TLA concern did not appear on the government’s list of objectives, an issue that in the opinion of the TLA, may go a long way to addressing important First Nations concerns about participation in the industry and ongoing land claims. "The announcements made by the Premier will fundamentally address growing concerns about forest management on the coast,” said Elstone. “As timber-harvesting contractors, we recognize change is required and that the industry needs certainty. We are hopeful the announced initiatives will support industry sustainability, and the TLA remains available to continue working with the Premier to meet the government’s objectives while the contractors’ concerns are heard.”
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By Jennifer Kramer
O
n the heels of celebrating 75 years, the TLA entered its 76th year with a monumental announcement at this year’s Annual Convention & Trade Show. Premier Horgan drew a standing ovation from the full room of more than 300 logging industry delegates when he announced the elimination of the fair market rate test. In the time-honoured tradition of the Premier’s address, Horgan also made a commitment to exploring solutions that the TLA has put forward to address the industry’s acute skilled labour shortage, and shared details of their new Coast Revitalization Initiative (see page 31). Also an annual tradition, Minister Donaldson’s session featured a question and answer style format demonstrating a typical meeting with TLA executives to discuss current hot topics facing logging contractors and the forest industry (see page 46). During their discussion, they addressed the Contractor Sustainability Review, log exports, and old growth logging. A catalyst for this year’s theme, “Making it Work,” the welcomed and muchanticipated announcement is the result of the past three years of advocacy and most recently, eight months of negotiations following the May 2018 release of the Contractor Sustainability Review and its 13 recommendations. The announcement provided a new-found optimism
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for contractors and we believe the coming year will continue to provide a brighter future, one in which they will be able to “Make it Work”. This year’s lineup of session topics addressed many of the timely issues contractors are currently facing including navigating a host of government policy changes, new technology, upcoming collective agreement negotiations, skilled labour shortages, and most importantly, relationships as identified in the Contractor Sustainability Review.
More than 1,200 delegates attended our convention held at the Westin Bayshore, and we look forward to seeing you again next year in the same location from January 15-17. We would like to take this opportunity to thank all of our event sponsors, silent and live auction donors, and annual sponsors. Your generous contributions enable us to continue to advocate on behalf of timber harvesting contractors across the province.
Kicking off the first of the three-day convention was a behind-the-scenes commentary from journalists Rob Shaw from The Vancouver Sun, and Richard Zussman from Global BC who shared their perspective and insight of the dramatic rise and fall of BC Liberals, the return to power of the NDP, and what it means for British Columbia’s volatile political climate going forward.
All photos: Brian Dennehy
Making it Work: The TLA’s 76th Annual Convention & Trade Show
The “Wildfire Fighting” session drew great discussion about contractor concerns and what they observed during the 2018 wildfires, and suggestions about how to improve the government’s effectiveness in forest fighting in 2019.
Each year, members and suppliers generously donate items to the live and silent auction. The funds raised through the auctions support student scholarships and forestry education programs. The silent auction raised $17,541 and the live auction raised $134,300 which will continue to provide funding for the forest industry’s future.
This year, the TLA awarded $31,000 in scholarships from the Forestry Education Fund to 18 forestry students at VIU, UBC and BCIT. The students met with and were congratulated by Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
The sold-out trade show continued to provide a central networking spot for delegates and suppliers. Each vendor joined in the fun at attempting to win the best booth contest, including interactive equipment simulators and sweet treats, with the winner going to Fountain Tire, whose casino-themed booth included full-costumed performers and gaming tables.
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TLA Board elected in January at the AGM: (left to right, back row) Barry Simpson, Tim Lloyd, Carl Sweet, Mark Ponting, Aaron Service, Dave McNaught, Clint Parcher, Brian Mulvihill, Matt Wealick, (front row) Tyson Lambert, Lawrence Van De Leur, Jacqui Beban (Immediate Past President), Bill Nelson (Vice President), Mike Richardson (President), David Elstone (Executive Director), Jen Norie, Dorian Uzzell, Sig Kemmler.
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New TLA Board Director, Jen Norie Jen Norie currently holds the position of General Manager for VIH Helicopters Ltd., as well as Marketing and Communications Manager for the VIH Aviation Group of Companies. VIH is an industry leader in global aerial heavy-lift applications, utilizing Kamov, Sikorsky and Bell helicopter types. VIH has been actively heli-logging in BC since 1989 and has made significant investments into aircraft, support equipment, and product development in order to strategically position for future growth and new opportunities in the forest industry.
Jen has studied Business Management at Dalhousie University in Halifax, NS; as well as International Business and Commercial Law at the University of Victoria. In addition to her roles within the VIH Aviation Group, Jen is the immediate past Chair of the board of directors for the Helicopter Association of Canada, a position she held for eight years. Jen was also featured in both Helicopters magazine and Wings magazine as one of the “Top 10 Under 40” in the Canadian Aviation Industry.
New TLA Board Director, Tyson Lambert T-MAR Industry's second-generation logging equipment enthusiast, Tyson Lambert, began his career working for his father sweeping floors and working in T-MAR’s original machine shop. There he gained his superior knowledge of logging equipment. He also credits this on-the-job training for building his character and work ethic.
Today, Tyson works in a customer support role as well as designing electronic control systems for the next generation of steep slope harvesters and rock drills. The role gives him a unique opportunity to understand the needs of forestry customers and to supply them with the tools to succeed.
76th Annual Truck Loggers Association
2019 CONVENTION + TRADE SHOW
MAKING
it
WORK
Thank You To Our Generous Sponsors! GOLD SPONSORS
SILVER SPONSORS
BRONZE SPONSORS
KEY CONTRIBUTORS
CONTRIBUTORS
Austin Powder Ltd. Benwest Logging Ltd. Challenger Enterprises Ltd. Mike Hamilton Logging Ltd. Orica Canada Inc. Pilldolla Creek Contracting/Tla’Amin Lake Contracting/Taseko Timber Ltd Ponting Contracting Ltd. Strategic Natural Resource Consultants Inc. Westland Insurance Group Ltd.
Advertising in Print Johnstone’s Benefits
SPOUSE EVENT CONTRIBUTORS
BC Forest Discovery Centre Bin4Burger Bon Macaron Hyde Creek Logging Interior Logging Association JLT Canada Johnstone’s Benefits Kajohl Management
Probyn Log Royquip VIH Helicopters Ltd. W&E Services LTD Way Point Insurance
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 37
Photo: iStock
Will Forestry Benefit from Professional Reliance Review?
TLA Perspective
C
urrently, there are many changes pending for the forest sector at various stages of implementation within government. One of which that could have wide-sweeping impact and will increase costs is the Professional Governance Act (Bill 49). Passed on November 27, 2018, the regulations that will put the substantial changes into place are still being drafted. Based on the Professional Reliance Review—The Final Report of the Review of Professional Reliance in Natural Resource Decision-Making (prepared by Mark Haddock), the new Act, and the Regulations Intentions Paper Consequent to the proposed Professional Governance Act we begin to get a sense of the direction headed and implications for the forest sector. While there are many positive changes in the new Act, which most professionals in the province support, they are overshadowed by the following examples of how it is difficult to see how forestry will benefit from these changes. It is difficult to quantify in terms of additional administration and related costs, but the new Act could increase workload for professional associations, their professional members, and the employers of professionals for what we suspect is little benefit and would likely take away time from current investments into forest stewardship initiatives. With the industry’s current substantial body of work dedicated to independent, third party sustainable forest management certification, the TLA is asking why the BC forest industry is being forced to take what seems like a step backwards in professional management of our forests? At a time when the contractor community is looking for more sustainable rates and ways of doing business, including certainty of workflow, these changes may be detrimental to the forest sector.
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The TLA is supportive of improvements to forest stewardship and professional accountability but many of the proposed changes seem to go beyond the intended goal and simply add administrative costs to an industry already experiencing rising cost pressures. The regulations will impact TLA members as timber harvesting contractors, the forest licensees that employ them, and forestry consultants who are members of the associations covered under the Act—Association of BC Forest Professionals (ABCFP), Applied Science Technologists and Technicians of BC (ASTTBC), BC Institute of Agrologists (BCIA), College of Applied Biology (CAB), and Engineers and Geoscientists of BC (EGBC). In October 2018, George Heyman, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy stated, “the changes… will help restore public confidence in the professional reliance model and give certainty to resource companies that rely on qualified professionals…”. What exactly are these changes and what are the implications? What does it mean in terms of costs and administration? Will they result in better forest stewardship? Where is the proof that the broad public did not trust forest professionals, which is presumably the driver behind this new legislation? In fact, according to independent public polling contracted by the Association of BC Forest Professionals, resource professionals such as foresters, forest technologists, biologists, and engineers are the most trusted by the public when it comes to information regarding BC’s forest resources, above any other group including academia, environmentalists, industry executives, and government managers. And among resource professionals the public trust level is the highest for registered forest professionals.
One source for changing the professional model came from the 2017 Confidence and Supply Agreement (CASA) between the Green and New Democrat Party caucuses with the stated intent to, “…address failures in the professional reliance model in BC so that British Columbians’ faith in resource development can be restored.” Let’s look at examples of the changes coming as outlined in the Act and the proposed Regulations and see how a typical forest professional will be affected under the new professional reliance model: In the new Act, there is framework for the superintendent of professional governance (a new office being created under the Attorney General Ministry) to administer rosters of professionals. It will specify the qualifications or other criteria required to be included with restricted activities that may only be carried out by roster members, causing professionals not on the roster to be unable to work on a specific project. There will be costs involved in trying to maintain the correct information on the roster and implications if they get it wrong. With 60,000 potentially affected professionals in the province, we expect maintaining a current roster and the resources required to monitoring the rules and administering it will be onerous. One of the major proposed changes that will affect TLA members is the regulation of firms, which may be a company, partnership, corporation or other association of persons including consulting firms and industry companies, such as a major forest tenure holder or timber harvesting contractors. The government is considering introducing regulations that will require these firms to join the applicable association based on having regulated professionals in their employment. The relevant professional association will then be required
to also regulate the firm as well as the individual professionals. A forest company or consulting firm with foresters, engineers and biologists could potentially have to join the Association of BC Forest Professionals, College of Applied Biology, and Engineers and Geoscientists of BC. Prior to the new Act, this was not the case; it was only the professional individual that was required to become a member of the applicable association. Obviously, there will be increased costs for these “new members” in terms of both membership fees, but more importantly, in ensuring the compliance to the new regulations. And of course, these extra costs would then need to be covered through fees charged to their clients such as forest tenure holders and yes, the government. Under the new Act, there is no risk assessment of the size or type of work undertaken so the work of an engineering firm outside of the forest sector (which is also covered) related to, for example, designing and building a bridge, is not differentiated from that of lower risk activity such as silviculture prescription. Does this make sense when it comes to public health and safety, and the environment? While professional practice rules already exist in their respective profession’s code of ethics to report professional malpractice and misconduct to the respective association, this requirement has been extended to require the reporting of other professionals, which are not just fellow foresters but also all professionals from different fields under the Act. For instance, now a professional forester over-looking a biologist can go beyond their own field of knowledge and report them and vice versa. Professionals will be expected to report incidents of poor or improper practice, regardless of the profession. The Act and its regulations will make this requirement stronger by laying out the situations when reporting is required; for example, where there is a perceived risk of significant harm to the environment or safety of the public. The government is also considering regulations that would require professionals to make a declaration of competency free from conflict of interest for all professional services they provide. While neither the Mark Haddock report nor the Regulations Intentions Paper explains fully why these declarations are beneficial, they will result in an onerous paperwork process. Professionals are already bound
by these obligations within the Foresters Act, Code of Ethics and standards of their profession, so multiple paper declarations add nothing further to the obligations that already exist. There is also a lack of clarity on how these declarations would be tracked or who would be responsible for maintaining them. Regardless, the declarations represent potential increased costs, and a loss of productivity to paperwork. Further, it is difficult to see what value it serves from an enforcement perspective as government, professional associations or the new superintendent, we believe, can rely on them to prove or disprove competency or absence of conflicts. The common approach for checking competency is at the hiring stage, followed by ongoing professional development once hired. The declarations on an ongoing basis do not add any value or assurance. Professional associations already ensure educational standards are met when individuals enter the profession, plus require a two-year articling period with several exams. Each year they require professionals to declare they are only doing work they are competent to do, and in the ABCFP’s case, it conducts random practice audits every year. The competence declarations
could add extra review for the ABCFP assuming there will be a review and confirmation process once filed with the ABCFP. One of the associations has stated publicly they estimate if this requirement is brought into force they will receive over one million declarations per year. With many of the pending government initiatives, we believe that there will be unintended consequences with no real upside to address the original intent of the 2017 CASA agreement. Undoubtedly, if regulations are developed to support this new Act, there will be a great need for more workers to process paper instead of practising onthe-ground forestry. Yet, our industry continues to suffer from a lack of availability of skilled persons, including forest professionals. On March 4, feedback to the Ministry of Environment on their Intentions Paper is due that will indicate the direction government will decide to go. We hope common sense prevails and the true intent of the changes are kept in mind and a simple, yet overwhelming bureaucratic process is not the answer.
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We’ve completed another year with a zero medical incident report! Safety is our priority. Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 39
By Robin Brunet
T
he theme of the 76th Annual Truck Loggers Association convention, “Making it Work,” encompassed everything from wildfire fighting to the impact of cannabis legalization; but on January 18, one of the last presentations of the three-day event got to the heart of what ‘making it work’ really means for those struggling to prevail in an enormously challenging industry. ‘Working Relationships—Making it Work’ saw four respected industry veterans discuss how they are overcoming one of the biggest problems plaguing the forestry sector: the relationships between contractors and major licensees. And while some of their solutions involved a commitment to technology and complex operational procedures, they agreed that the most effective solutions are the simplest—as summarized by Kevin Horsnell, vice president of woodlands for Canfor, who endeared delegates by espousing the virtues of “meetings over eggs.” Horsnell, whose presentation followed that of Lennard Joe, general manager of Stuwix Resources Ltd., pointed out that since Canfor is responsible for delivering 15 million cubic metres of wood to its 13 primary manufacturing facilities in
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Western Canada, “we rely totally on our contractors. The relationship between contractors and licensees is incredibly important, and we put in a lot of time and effort into making sure we’re successful.” Horsnell said that what his contractors want the most “is a plan, an entire winter plan, so they can determine their activities and make themselves efficient. So, we have a goal at every operation to get two years of wood under permit. We’re not always successful, but we do get enough for our contractors.” He added that developing these plans so they match the equipment owned by contractors is crucial in maintaining productive contractor/licensee relationships. Other elements that have fortified relationships at Canfor include making the corporation’s fuel rates available to contractors; maintaining a comprehensive benefits and pension program; and maintaining multiple reloads in all BC operations, which lengthens the hauling season and allows contractors to expand their ability to generate an even flow of revenue. As for technology enhancing contractor/licensee relationships, Canfor has worked extensively with FPInnovations
to achieve proper layouts of winch assist systems, which Horsnell said will help his company consume about two million cubic metres of harvestable wood within two years. Canfor is also interested in exploring the full potential of machine telematics, again using FPInnovations as a resource. However, Horsnell suggested that of all the initiatives undertaken by Canfor over the years, nothing can replace “meetings over eggs”—i.e.: sitting down and talking informally—as a fundamental way to develop and maintain a meaningful bond between the contractor and licensee. “At least once every quarter you need to go have breakfast with your contractor and just talk about the business,” he said. “That way, you’re able to head off things before they become a real issue. “It’s the one thing I would encourage our people to do the most.” What resonated for contractors about Horsnell’s comments was that there is a need to educate their younger contract managers on dealing with contractors. For instance, rate model outputs are not gospel, but need to be modified for the specific situation.
All photos: Brian Dennehy
Working Relationships—Making it Work
Dale Ewers, managing director of New Zealand-based DC Equipment (whose mission is to create a safer and more productive steep slope logging industry), agreed strongly with Horsnell’s emphasis on simple two-way communication. Keeping his presentation short, he noted that his approach to worker relations in his organization was to “treat everyone as a family.” He also emphasized the importance of listening rather than speaking: “That’s why you have two ears and one mouth.” All of this came on the heels of Lennard Joe’s take on the importance of communication and listening, especially with regards to new relationships being forged between forestry companies and First Nations, and how the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) will affect this dynamic (for the record, UNDRIP moves Canada away from the consultative model and into a consent model, meaning First Nations must give consent to any industrial initiative that may involve them before government can give approval). Joe said that while some of the outcomes of UNDRIP could be “take-backs or an acquisition of tenures, I look at it as an opportunity to start new businesses. First Nations should be looked at as possible partners…you have a really good resource in your communities with First Nations, and the environment is going to make it even more attractive.” Joe went on to describe the responsibilities of First Nations in building
relationships and business opportunities. “It’s my job to create an environment that will attract investment,” and on that score he used Stuwix Resources Ltd. (which, since starting harvesting and forest management operations in 2005, has harvested 2.6 million cubic metres of timber and planted over eight million trees) as an example of a company that strives to use every piece of wood. Indeed, the Merritt-based firm, which is jointly owned and operated by eight First Nation Bands in the Nlaka’pamux and Syilx territories, started the first grinding program in the region, launched a chipping program, and is now working on programs that will help the province reduce burnings and emissions. “Every time you utilize fibre, you’re creating a job,” said Joe. The fourth speaker to share his thoughts about working relationships was an outsider to the forestry world. Sean Surerus,
president of Fort St. John-based Surerus Pipeline Inc., explained that as one of the largest pipeline contractors in Canada, his company develops access, clearing, grading and reclamation plans in order to construct pipelines for some of the world’s biggest energy companies. He said that in his realm, “part of a sustainable contracting relationship is being able to understand what owners need to deliver and what their commitments are, and marry them to our business. If we’re not on the same page as them on how we’re going to deliver on safety and quality or work with indigenous communities, we’re going to be unsuccessful.” Another relationship crucial to Surerus Pipeline is between the company and clearing contractors. “They are key,” Surerus said. “Clearing is the first and largest contract for us and can easily be worth $30 million. We hire lots of local people, and we do not low ball—it’s too important, given that we must build trust with local communities.” The closing question and answer session between the speakers and moderator Brian Mulvihill (manager of forest products at Finning Canada) saw more advice being given on how to strengthen the ties between contractors and licensees. However, Dale Ewers arguably summarized the best philosophical approach—as well as at the same time illustrated the difficulty—in making the relationship work. He concluded, “If you want something from somebody, first you have to give it. And that’s a big problem in the forest industry: somebody has to start the process. In New Zealand it started with the forest companies: they gave me something, and I gave back, and it built from there.”
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 41
All photos: Brian Dennehy
Making It Work in New Zealand
By Paul Schuetz
D
ale Ewers, who provided the Keynote luncheon address at the 76th Annual TLA Convention & Trade Show, demonstrated how over the course of three decades his company improved profitability as a side benefit of a desire to reduce workplace injuries by advancements in logging technology and mechanization. “If you want change, first you have to change” was one of several informative adages imparted by Ewers, the managing director of New Zealand-based companies DC Equipment and Moutere Logging. Ewers said that in the 1990s, the New Zealand forest industry needed to improve its poor safety record, and in order to do this he realized they needed to change the way they logged first. During the course of a lengthy and ongoing career as a forestry logging contractor, Ewers subsequently made many innovative and strategic changes to his logging operations that not only greatly improved safety statistics, but productivity as well. Ewers started his forestry career as a 14-year-old tree faller at a time when the industry was beset by near-misses, injuries and frequent fatalities. In 1989, at age
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23, Ewers and his brothers started their own logging company, Moutere Logging based out of Nelson, in the north end of New Zealand’s South Island. It wasn’t long after the start-up that Ewers suffered five broken vertebrae while falling a tree. Over the next decade and a half, his company would continue to experience numerous incidents—near-misses, injuries and fatalities—all related to forest operations on steep slopes. “Too many times we carried our people off the hill,” Ewers explained, and it is the welfare of his workers that inspired him to seek out a solution to the safety problem that plagued his industry. The answer was slow in coming, however. In 2003 alone, Moutere Logging experienced nearly 240 incidents, 90 per cent of which involved either the men setting chokers on the hillside or working on the landings. Machine mechanization appeared to be the solution to reduce the number of workers placed in dangerous situations on the worksite. In 2016, mechanized processors were incorporated to reduce injuries on landing sites, cutting the number of incidents by nearly 50 per cent. Despite the significant
decrease in incidents, it didn’t get rid of the problem. Men were still getting injured. During a 2010 meeting with his managers, Ewers realized that the one common theme of all incidents, whether on landings or on the hillside, was “every incident involved people.” So, the simple solution to this was to get rid of the “people.” Despite the folly in the statement, it was clear that people working in a cab were not getting injured, so full mechanization of the entire logging site became the ultimate goal. Ewers and his managers then developed a long-term plan to help reduce injuries on his crews and to technologically advance his logging operations. The first goal was to develop a fully mechanized tower crew, which was achieved early with the introduction of the Falcon Claw grapple carriage and the winch assist. In 2012, the Falcon Forestry Claw grapple carriages were implemented on all logging sites to replace the choker setters, which resulted in another marked reduction in incidents. In 2013, winchassist technology was introduced to replace the majority of manual tree-falling, lowering the number of incidents to less than 50 per year. As Ewers’ crews become
accustomed to new techniques and properly trained in technology, they now experience less than 10 incidents per year, down from 240 just 15 years earlier. And while safety was the driving force behind the changes to Moutere Logging’s operations, the surprise benefit was a substantial increase in productivity realized through the implementation of these technological advancements. The increases in productivity came with an increased profitability for his company. But in order to ensure a longer-term relationship, Ewers proposed a deal with the forest owner to split the increase in profits earned from the improved productivity while putting aside a portion for research and development. The intention was that these funds would lead to further innovations in logging technology. In response, the land owner allowed Ewers to keep the majority of the increased earnings and encouraged him to continue to innovate. They clearly recognized that increases in productivity helped their bottom line as well and they wanted to ensure this continued. In the seven years since, innovations and new technological investments have paid for themselves many times over, creating a win-win situation that proved beneficial to both parties. The impacts of the new technology were also clear in numerous statistics that Ewers presented. The most striking of
these statistics was the number of working hours of the grapple carriages and winch-assist machines—230,000 hours and 360,000 hours respectively—with an incident rate of zero. All of this while doubling their production. By 2020, the goal is to achieve a fully integrated logging system with the use of Ewers’ most recent innovation, the Felling Carriage that was being put into production for the first time back in New Zealand concurrent with Ewers’ presentation. The Felling Carriage would enable a worker to harvest a tree from the safety of a cab on the landing site, with the use of cameras on the carriage and joystick controls in the cab. Also, by 2020, Ewers and his team are in the process of developing the technology to increase productivity by retrieving a tree from the
hillside with the push of a button, and by 2022 to operate the Felling Carriage and harvest a tree with the push of a button. By 2025 the goal is to become completely push-button automated with the ability of completing all operations from afar. With no one on the hillside, no one will get hurt. While Ewers’ accomplishments in logging technology are truly remarkable, and the improvements to his company’s safety record and productivity undeniable, his 2025 goal of harvesting from afar seems almost too unbelievable to fathom, to which Ewers simply replies “why can’t we do that?” For Ewers, “if there is a will there is always a way” and if it involves new technologies that will inevitably make the job safer for his crew, then he is willing to make the effort. The advice he gave during his closing statements was that contractors need to work together, to help each other out, and to share in new technologies to make the forest industry safer. Additionally, contractors need to work together with licensees and land owners and vice versa. As licensees are looking for savings, contractors are looking for profits, and the two parties need to communicate better to pool their resources in order to achieve both. “If you want change, first you have to change,” and the loggers need to take the first step and be willing to change the way they are operating in favour of newer, safer options. They need to approach the licensees with their long-term plans and in turn, the licensees must offer longer contracts that would allow the logger to invest more in equipment, training and new technology. This forward thinking inevitably will result in a win-win situation for everybody, and most importantly workers will return home safe each day.
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BC Is Not in Business Without A Working Forest
TLA Perspective
The working forest land base in BC is shrinking and there is no clear indication this trend will lose momentum. The BC Government has committed to sustainably harvesting old growth and balancing provincial forest policy to ensure all stakeholder needs are met. However, with the transition to lower volume second-growth stands we need an increasing working forest land base secured in order to meet the needs of a sustainable, economically viable forest industry.
B
C’s unique land and climate is home to one of the richest plant and wildlife resources in North America. This includes three-quarters of all mammal species found in Canada, 488 bird species, 480 fish species, 136 mammal species, 20 amphibian species, 16 reptile species, 1,596 native vascular plants species, 35,000 insect species, and tens of thousands of other invertebrate species. Pretty impressive, right? No one has a greater appreciation for BC’s natural landscapes and complex critter interactions than those working in the forest industry, and directly generating their sustainable, multi-generational family income from the forest resources. So what happens to all this complex structure and interaction of fauna and flora when the mature
44 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
trees are removed for harvest? Is any of it saved? How big is the harvest area? How were the trees removed? Who completed the work? When? Why? What is the impact of new trees planted at the site? Trying to assess the exact impact of human activities on our forests and the short- and long-term is very complicated and yes, it is much more difficult than rocket science. It is rare to get multiple scientists or professionals agreeing on the “correct” answer. Complexity and uncertainty opens the door for influence from some ENGO’s and interest groups pushing self-serving conservation and preservation related agendas. When “the sky is falling” and alarm bells are ringing, this is an opportunity for incoming cash flow pulses into
their “business” from concerned citizens, celebrities, and even government funded aid and research programs. While the BC Government and all forest professionals have the responsibility to ensure a balanced stakeholder approach to managing BC’s forests, the shrinking working forest land base appears to be the result of a classic case of “the squeaky wheels getting the grease”. We don’t have all the answers to predict the exact outcome of human interactions with our forests, but we do have a great deal of talented folks in academia, consulting fields, industry, and “in-the-field practitioners” all interacting to learn, improve practices, and inform forest policy makers. In fact, forestry has a longer history of practice, research, and policy than
most other industries in BC, with the first forestry class offered at UBC in 1918. Historically, a great deal of forestry knowledge and practice in BC was transferred from European countries where there is an even greater history and knowledge of forestry practice following the 2nd world war. Many forestry professionals immigrated to BC, including the Hungarian Sopron crew whose mass immigration provided BC with a new perspective on forestry and an increased knowledge base. With all this knowledge and experience, why does BC struggle to maintain the size of its working forest land base? Based on this declining land base trend, it would appear the government is forecasting a shrinking demand for wood products in the future. With the passing of the Wood First Act, and various climate change and carbon sequestration initiatives, we know the BC government is advocating for an increased utilization of wood products in construction. So timber harvesting contractors are left in this conflicting state between theoretical ideals and practical realities and see increasing pressure to reduce harvest volumes and working
forest areas in BC. The following partial list quantifies this position: • Parks and protected areas cover 14.2 per cent of the total BC land base. • 55 per cent of BC’s 3.2 million hectares of old growth forests are already protected in parks and wilderness areas (including two-thirds of the old growth on Vancouver Island’s Crown land). • The Province has 55,000 Old Growth Management Areas covering 3.9 million hectares set aside as noncommercially harvestable units. • In 2008 the government introduced the designation of 70 new conservancies and 11 new Class A parks, along with the expansion of 5 existing parks and 2 existing conservancies. The new conservancies and parks placed more than 1.4 million additional hectares under protected areas status. • The utilities and pipeline sector applied for crown land tenure of nearly 15 million hectare between 2001 and 2009 and in recent years land tenure granted to this sector has increased exponentially (reliable data for recent years was inconsistent).
• In 2015, the government established
567 additional old growth management areas on the Sunshine Coast. • In 2016, the Great Bear Rainforest Act protected 85 per cent of a 6.4 million hectare commercial timber harvesting area, reducing and scattering the working forest area into uneconomical fragments with costly road and access constraints. • Recently, the “coastal Douglas-fir ecosystem” was protected in 19 parcels of land on Vancouver Island. • Loss of the fertile valley bottom working forest land base to urban development and agriculture is increasing at an exponential rate. In recent years the government has launched several environmental initiatives that are putting further pressure on reducing the working forest land base. Examples of these initiatives include: implementation of the Species at Risk Act, revision of the federal Fisheries Act, the Northern Goshawk Recovery Strategy recovery implementation plan, Marbled Murrelet Recovery Strategy, south island cautionary moratorium on old growth, monumental tree retention programs, legacy tree retention programs, Union of
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Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 45
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BC Municipalities resolution on old growth logging, and other regional initiatives aimed at reducing timber harvesting in BC. A healthy, economically viable forest industry is essential to the long-term prosperity of our province. Discussions of the working forest concept have been in circulation since at least the 1940s and at that time resulted tree farm licences (TFLs). Government’s intention of TFLs was for dedicated land to produce timber with the purpose of improving the lives of working men and women and their families. Over time, the companies assigned those TFLs have restructured, amalgamated, affiliated, and changed to the point where it seems the TFLs exist to maximize profits to company shareholders, which has lost alignment with its original intention. As licensees continue to reduce staff and contract as much of the forestry and harvesting operation as possible, the financial benefit of the forest resource shifts more towards the shareholder, and away from “working men and women.” This power imbalance between tenure holder and contracted worker is a source of many conflicts in the forest industry today, and has resulted in recent efforts such as the Contractor Sustainability Review. The federal government has committed to the United Nations Biodiversity Convention and the Canadian Biodiversity Strategy. The Auditor General’s audit of BC’s biodiversity found the provincial government had significant gaps in understanding of biodiversity, did not know if their actions were resulting in the conservation of biodiversity, and did not measure and report on its progress in the conservation of biodiversity. With this in mind, we can see that a lack of information and knowledge associated with pressure from environmental interest groups can lead to a shrinking working forest land base simply due to aversion of risk in land management decision making. If the impact of timber harvesting is unclear, there is more pressure to reduce harvesting timber. However, by assessing these information and knowledge gaps, we can address issues of concern and firm up boundaries associated with timber harvesting decisions. An example of this has recently played out with Northern Goshawk harvest restrictions on the south island. Private land forest owners have hired biologists and collected many years of habitat use and goshawk presence in second growth forests. Until recently, the government insisted goshawks required old growth forests to survive, and therefore large areas of old growth were retained in order to “protect biodiversity and goshawk habitat.” The recent studies of goshawk habitat in second growth clearly demonstrate the species' ability to adapt and thrive in second growth forests, and move around the landscape spatially as the forests are harvested and replanted. This eliminates the need for reducing the working forest land base for the survival of goshawks. The question is, how much protected old growth is enough? If we protected all of our forests we would eliminate jobs, economic activity and tax generation. The TLA believes we have achieved a balance with sustainable working forest, conservation of ecosystems, and representative and unique flora and fauna. We must protect our working forests.
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www.tla.ca/membership Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 47
By Jennifer Kramer
T
he TLA executive spend much of their volunteer time lobbying Minister Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development about current issues facing logging contractors and the forest industry on behalf of the TLA membership. At this year’s convention, the TLA executive re-enacted a typical meeting with the Minster in a question and answer session. The following paraphrases their discussion. TLA executive: The Contractor Sustainability Review (CSR) changes apply only to the Bill 13 timber harvesting contract regulation, which represents roughly only 20 per cent of the contractors in this province. The other 80 per cent are not Bill 13. If these proposed changes don't flow through to those contractors, what commitment do we have from government that you'll relook at this issue? Minister Donaldson: We intend for the new factor-based rate model to be a
48 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
standard practice throughout the province, I'll personally be keeping a close eye on how that rolls out. TLA executive: Why were some of the recommendations in the CSR not chosen to be implemented, such as a contractor being able to refuse work in the event of a rate dispute? Minister Donaldson: The right to refuse work is something that falls under labour laws. But I believe the new rate model will lead to better practices and a better relationship and there will be less of a need for the right to refuse work. That's what I hope. TLA executive: How do you see the CSR tying into the Coast Revitalization Initiative (CRI)? Minister Donaldson: I think significantly in the planning. I heard from you that, predictability is key in being able to hire and keep people and being able to look into financing equipment. The part that the CRI plays in the predictability part of the sustainability review recommendations is in
planning—in the increased focus between BC Timber Sales, First Nations and industry and in planning and getting that in place early, rather than sometimes having things blow up afterwards and leading to delays. The other part from the CRI process involves changes to the Forest Range and Practices Act. Those changes will involve improving forest stewardship plans; it's the public trust part. The public will have better ability to see what's happening in their own backyards as far as cutblocks and road plans, but that kind of detail and information has to be more available in forest stewardship plans, and therefore it also helps in predictability that contractors are looking for. TLA executive: Without adding further disruption and uncertainty, how can government fulfill its political interests while at the same time accept the realities of log exports and how they affect our industry?
Photo: Brian Dennehy
A Meeting with Minister Donaldson
Minister Donaldson: Those two aren’t mutually exclusive goals; and we can do it. We're not ready to live with just allowing the trends to continue the way they are, because at a macro level we're seeing less employment on the Coast—in the last 15 years, employment in forestry has been down by 40 per cent. We don't want to see the trends continue. Lumber manufacturing has declined by 45 per cent in the Coast over the last 15 years. Log exports have increased 155 per cent over the last 15 years. Those trends aren’t good for communities and we want to address them. On log exports, I'm fully aware, and we're fully aware as a government that log export is part of the economics of how a modern industry is existing on the Coast. Given that, what do we do? We want to ensure that logs in economically viable areas close to communities with mills will go to those mills, versus being exports, and logs that are in harder to access economic areas will still be able to be exported. We're going to fine tune the fee in lieu to address that, but we believe that that's going to create a better situation overall on the log export scenario. TLA executive: Are there incentives that the government can create for domestic manufacturing rather than changing long-established export policy? Is there a way that we can keep exporting under the long-established policies but still provide incentive to manufacture domestically? Minister Donaldson: What we've done with the [CRI] is an incentive program. It recognizes that in hard-to-access forests for timber harvesting, there will be a log export component. But the incentive is that we're creating more fibre available for domestic use and local use. That's from an incentive point of view, that's what investors want to hear. TLA executive: What is the government’s plan to address waste in the woods? Minister Donaldson: Two million cubic metres per year is what is left in the woods. We have other sectors in the industry that want that kind of fibre, like the pulp and paper sector. We're going to implement some increased utilization standards, but we're going to make it also easier on companies by having stumpage assessed both on the primary and the secondary fibre at the same
time. It will make it easier to bring it out of the woods. I think the end result will be that you'll see more available supply to the pulp and paper sector, which employs a lot of people in BC, and also to the bioeconomy sector. TLA executive: I'm just thinking the mid-Coast, north-Coast areas; there's no market for that wood. Minister Donaldson: It's going to have to be a business-to-business relationship. There will still be the pay-toleave, but in fibre recovery zones that we’re creating the penalties will be higher to leave, so that will be an incentive to bring waste out. But it's also recognition that the pulp buyers have to understand that price as well. TLA executive: Is your ministry aware of the problem with waiting for cutting permits and how can you change things that could add some relief to this growing issue? Minister Donaldson: I think once the information is processed, I understand the 40-day turnaround is achieved. It's just the conditions before the process begins. In some cases, the ripple effect from the forest fires the last couple of years has had an impact on staffing on the Coast and being able to gather the information and process those permits. There's also consultation processes with First Nations. We're trying to expedite that through some approaches we're taking in developing frameworks around reconciliation; I'm hoping that will lead to less delays. There are also a lot more First Nations involved in the forest sector now on the coast. I think that's a good trend and so I see fewer delays in the cutting permits from that aspect as well. TLA executive: What is your government going to do about the claims by the Sierra Club that the NDP government is not doing enough to preserve Vancouver Island’s remaining old growth forests? Minister Donaldson: We value old growth forests, as everybody in the room does for a number of the attributes they bring to the forest ecosystem. Especially for me, related to water retention and water that our communities depend on and water that other uses like agriculture depend on, water that fish depend on. We'll be working with you and environmental organizations to continue our old growth
strategy, which includes sustainably harvesting old growth forest. It's hard to get to any solution unless you can start with an agreed upon set of facts. That's a first step. We're having discussions with environmental organizations to say let's agree on a state of facts around how much old growth is protected already. How much is harvested, what the impact of that is. Right now, there's not a common agreement on that. Let's get together. You share your evidence, what's your evidence based on? We share our facts. That's where I want to start and I think we're going to get there. TLA executive: Does the government recognize that stumpage increases, the new Employer Health Tax, increasing carbon tax, and new Professional Reliance legislation are creating conditions that are counter-productive to the cost management of the forest industry; how will your government change this? Minister Donaldson: The question comes down to competitiveness. I'm not pleased with the trend of major producers investing in mills in south east United States, for instance, or across the border in other places. Sometimes we see there's lots of money being made in BC and then we see that being invested elsewhere and we want to change that. There's a lot of factors around competitiveness. In BC, society has demanded environmental standards, which don’t exist in other places where investments have been made, but I don't think that's something that people in BC would want to see decreased. There’s other jurisdictions that pay minimal wages compared to what is paid to BC forest sector workers. We see other jurisdictions where safety standards are much more lax, so when we're talking competitiveness, we've got to think about that as well. We should be proud of the standards that we have in BC. I think that some of the emphasis that I can create as the Minister is the efforts we put into forest innovations, investment in marketing and other countries and in the research and development of new forest products that we support as well.
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 49
Is First Nations the Solution to Job Shortage?
By Ian MacNeill
O
n the surface of it, the future looks bright for Ponting Contracting. Although the Campbell Riverbased road-building company typically lays down an average of 30 kilometres of track a year for clients such as A&A Trading and Interfor. Next year, owner Mark Ponting says he’s scheduled to build as much as 50 klicks annually, and there’s more work if he wants it. “I could pick up the phone and add another 20 kilometres of road today,” he says. Unfortunately, there’s something of a roadblock preventing him from doing it—a lack of qualified skilled labour to do the job. “My biggest challenge is coming up with qualified employees to do the work,” he says. The shortage is more acute, the more complex and important the job, with experienced excavator operators and driller/blasters in particularly short supply. It isn’t that there aren’t excavator operators and driller/blasters available; it’s that more often than not they don’t have the kind of experience Ponting
needs to work in the challenging terrain he faces on a daily basis. “There are guys out there, but they don’t have the kinds of skills and experience we need for working in steep, rugged and often dangerous terrain,” he says. “The kind of work we do is different from construction where you’re just doing cut-fills and everything is planned out for you. Although we have all the latest plans and geo-tech reports, we’re constantly having to adapt on the fly, and under extreme conditions.” He doesn’t have to reach far back into the files to find an example of how problematic inadequate experience can be. “I had a guy with 25 years of excavator experience who was a ringer,” he recalls. “I moved him into an area where the topography is different; the first thing he did was have a landslide.” Making it worse is that he isn’t the only one looking for qualified bodies. He tells of a recent meeting with a group of road building contractors ranging in size from 20 to 60 employees where every single
one complained of having the same issue. “There’s a guy just up the road from me who’s got $5-million worth of equipment sitting in his yard and no one to run the machines.” Not surprisingly, where shortages occur, cutthroat competition follows. “We’re getting into bidding wars with each other,” he says. “I’m paying some excavator operators as much as $170,000 a year. That’s doctor’s wages.” The competition isn’t just coming from up the road either, it’s coming from across Canada. Everywhere you look business is booming and qualified personnel are on the move, be it to, or from, the construction industry or the oil and gas sector. And the situation is not likely to change anytime soon because many of the more experienced workers are aging out of the system. A lot of them, he says, are men in their fifties who are more likely to be contemplating exit strategies into retirement than another job. And according to Statistics Canada, this reflects a national trend that isn’t going to change anytime
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soon. In 2016, it says, individuals aged 55 and over accounted for 36 per cent of the working-age population, the highest proportion on record, but by 2026 it could reach as much as 40 per cent. An obvious place to look for solutions is the trade schools, but again the problem is the experience level. You can’t just take a trade-school grad and plunk him or her on a machine and let them go, you have to train them up to the position, which takes time, a year at minimum, and for the really tricky work, a lot longer. Ponting says it does represent a solution, but an expensive one. New hires typically work at about half the productivity level as long-time employees, and they tend to be harder on equipment, which means they have to be carefully supervised. “You have to have a competent person on hand to mentor, so there’s another wage,” he says. And we’re not talking about indentured labour here. Just because you train someone doesn’t mean they’re under any obligation to stay with you, and many do
not, lured away by bigger paychecks and steadier work elsewhere. One solution to the problem, he says, would be to take some of the sting out of the cost of on-the-job training. Currently, the Truck Loggers Association is lobbying the provincial government to provide contractors with a tax credit that would do just that. A recent letter to Melanie Mark, Minister of Advanced Education, Skills and Training, outlined contractor concerns and concluded that a tax credit could ease the financial burden of on-the-job training and “help ensure the next generation of workers acquire the necessary knowledge to be productive and safe, before the know-how is lost to retirement.” The good news is that according to TLA executive director David Elstone, the Premier “made a commitment to look at TLA solutions for skilled labour shortages during his speech” at the recent TLA convention. The solution, any solution, can’t come soon enough for Mark Ponting, who adds
that licensees and other clients could help in the short run by maintaining a steady stream of projects because it’s often the downtime between jobs that leads to skilled workers moving on. “If one job ends and another doesn’t start up for a month the guys go elsewhere, and who can blame them,” he says. “It’s important to pre-plan, get the right permitting, and settle issues with First Nations. We need to be able to transition from one job site to the next to keep the guys going on a steady schedule.” First Nations to the rescue? Could First Nations be part of the solution to the forest industry’s labour-shortage problems? Mark Ponting of Ponting Contracting is optimistic that they could. “We’re already working with First Nations and we’re very optimistic about them as a source of labour,” he says. “They live in the areas and they have a vested interest in the land.” (Continued to page 54)
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(Continued from page 51) They can also be useful allies when it comes to dealing with forces ranged against the industry. “They want the best Photo: www.naturallywood.com
54 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019
thing for the environment, but they also want economic benefit for their communities and people,” he explains. “They can
make decisions about the right way to go without the assistance of those who have an anti-logging agenda,” he says. According to Lisa Luscombe, program manager for the BC First Nations Forestry Council (BCFNFC), the feelings are mutual. “We are very excited to promote forestry careers and business development opportunities to Indigenous communities,” she said in an email to Truck LoggerBC magazine. A BCFNFC report published in 2017 underlines the point and even goes so far as to identify the emerging shortfall of forestry workers as a golden opportunity for First Nations. “This projection was seen by the Forestry Council as an urgent opportunity for our First Nations to increase participation and employment in the forest sector provincially and also to address the current and future workforce needs of our First Nations communities and businesses, who are playing an increased role in the sector as aboriginal tenure holders and managers,” the report stated. The report’s “action plan” calls for an increase in “the number of skilled and successful First Nations in the forest economy, and developing partnerships and business involving aboriginal people, forest companies and government.” Obviously, there are a number of individuals from First Nations already working in forestry, but the goal now is to open the door wider and facilitate training. “What still needs to happen to help young First Nations make a career in forestry is for the BCFNFC and BC forest industry companies to work together to increase Indigenous forestry workforce strategy opportunities such as career promotion, internships, job placements, training programs, recruitment, retention and advancement in the forest industry,” said Ms. Luscombe. Obviously not being able to find the kinds of employees needed today is a problem for the industry in general and contractors in particular, but the dilemma also presents an opportunity to forge new links with First Nations and access a labour force pool that’s increasingly enthusiastic about participating in forestry. Industry, government and First Nations now need to continue working together to make that a reality.
Spring 2019 Truck LoggerBC 55
More ways to help your business
IronPlanet Weekly online auctions helping you buy & sell equipment fast, when you need it.
Ritchie Bros. Auctioneers Exciting unreserved live auctions with onsite and online bidding.
Marketplace-E Daily equipment listings with flexible Buy Now, Make Offer, or Reserve Auction selling models.
Our upcoming Chilliwack, May 29th auction is a great opportunity to buy and sell equipment. Contact us at 1.604.823.2700 to discuss how we can help your business. No obligations. Learn more at RitchieBros.com
56 Truck LoggerBC Spring 2019