Old Growth Questions for B.C. Election Candidates

The government that takes office for the next 4 years must accelerate a just transition away from old growth logging and move towards a real paradigm shift in forestry – one that centers returning land and management to Indigenous Nations. Right now, every party is paying close attention to votes so it’s critical that every candidate knows that this is an issue you’ll be voting on. Approaching them with pointed questions is one effective way of doing so.

Speaking from your personal concerns and how this issue impacts your community is always the most powerful so we encourage you to craft your own questions. For more general questions, you can check out the list that our friends at Wilderness Committee published here. In addition, here are some sample questions to challenge them more specifically – we will set the context and then follow up with a related question, which you’re welcome to put into your own words:

1. Setting the context: In 2020, the B.C. government promised to implement the 14 Old Growth Strategic Review recommendations over a 3 year timeline, but to this day, not one of those recommendations has been fully completed.
   1. Question: Do you support the implementation of these recommendations? If yes, how will you ensure that you and your party implement these recommendations swiftly to tangibly move towards the paradigm shift in forestry that is long overdue?
2. Setting the context: In the last 4 years, old growth logging has been one of the top concerns of residents across B.C. from a multitude of sectors and across the political spectrum. A recent poll commissioned by Organizing For Change shows that 76% of B.C. residents responded that it is important that the B.C. government uphold their commitment to temporarily defer logging in the largest and most at-risk old-growth forests in B.C.
   1. Question: How will you and your party ensure that all proposed logging deferrals are immediately implemented? What steps would you take to prioritize high risk areas mapped by the Old Growth Technical Advisory Panel, especially where logging and road building is continuing, as well as additional areas that meet the criteria for at-risk old growth and any areas identified by First Nations?
3. Setting the context: As pointed out in a 2022-32 resolution from UBCIC, “the current divisive picture of old growth logging has been, and continues to be, exacerbated by the B.C. government fostering an economic dependence on logging for First Nations through limited revenue-sharing, joint ventures, employment, and tenures in contentious areas where First Nations face limited alternate economic opportunities as a result of years of colonialism and racism. It is a Title and Rights violation for First Nations to have to choose between logging remaining old growth forests and having adequate funds to support their communities… The UBCIC Chiefs Council calls on the Province to ensure full and urgent financial support for First Nations to implement immediate logging deferrals and resilience planning on their unceded territories. Funding must fully compensate First Nations for lost revenues from impact agreements, as well as additional resources to support members whose employment is impacted.”
   1. Question: To help address this systemic barrier, how will your party provide full and urgent financial support to First Nations to ensure that old growth protection is a viable economic option?
4. Setting the context: We were pleased to see the tripartite Nature Agreement with the First Nations Leadership Council and the provincial and federal government to provide funding to support Indigenous-led land use planning and protection announced in November 2023, however there is still no active implementation plan.
   1. Question: What is your party’s active implementation plan for the tripartite Nature Agreement?
5. Setting the context: The Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples Act became law almost 5 years ago, yet the B.C. government has taken little action to implement it, as was critiqued by First Nations leaders November, 2023 and in ongoing ways. First Nations need to be at the table for meaningful co-development and working together to implement DRIPA, which is mandated by the law itself: “[i]n consultation and cooperation with the Indigenous peoples in British Columbia … take all measures necessary to ensure the laws of British Columbia are consistent with the Declaration.” However, in 2024 the B.C. government paused the implementation of the Land Act Amendments and continued to fail to uphold Indigenous Title and Rights, jurisdiction, and decision-making.
   1. Question: How will your party swiftly take action to co-develop the implementation of DRIPA with First Nations?
6. Setting the context: Land Back is a movement that has existed for generations demanding the return of land to Indigenous Nations. Many Indigenous leaders have underscored how there can be no true reconciliation without giving land back. Instead the B.C. government continues to fight First Nations like Nuchatlaht in glacial colonial court battles as they strive to get their land back to heal their people and territory. B.C. government lawyers continue to enact erasure of Indigenous peoples arguing that they “abandoned their land”.
   1. Question: What are you personally committed to doing to advocate for the return of land to Indigenous Nations within the B.C. government? What is your party committed to doing?
7. Setting the context: Public transparency has always been a key issue when it comes to holding the Ministry of Forests, and the government it falls under, accountable. It has been greatly challenging over the last four years to verify that what the government says it’s doing, is the reality reflected on the ground. In the meantime, Stand.earth Research Group developed a public monitoring tool called Forest Eye to fill in the gap.
   1. Question: How will you direct staff to immediately improve transparency in government announcements, reporting and monitoring?
8. Setting the context: Year after year, more evidence continues to surface of whole trees from primary and old growth forest being turned into wood pellets for overseas electricity generation. This is the antithesis of the paradigm shift we so desperately need for forests, workers and communities.
   1. Question: What measures would you take to ensure forests are not being logged to turn into a low value product like pellets?