Former Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson will be part of a new provincial advisory council on forestry.
Simpson says the Council was actually supposed to be announced around UBCM (Union of BC Municipalities Convention), so I have been aware of it for a while.
“It’s not predicated on my position as Mayor, but my background in the forest sector and some of the innovative thinking that was demonstrated in the forest sector even before I was Mayor, when I was the opposition critic for forestry.”
Simpson says he is excited about it.
“I think it’s the right framework of looking at resiliency of communities and then going to the land base forest practices through that lens of how do you create resilient economies, local economies, resilient communities that are dependent on that resource. I think the frame is correct, and it’s an interesting eclectic group of people to dig into that topic.”
He says it’s his understanding that they really want to take a fresh approach, asking today’s questions, and not getting into yesterday’s debates.
“Quite frankly I think the BC Forest Sector is stuck in yesterday’s debates, so my hope is we’re looking at the land base issues through the lens of climate change and adaptivity of that forest land base, so that it continues to provide the kind of resources that drive the sector, and then more innovative practices with the limited fibre that we can extract from that land base now.”
Simpson says to him, that means getting into the bioeconomy in a much bigger way.
The Forestry Worker Supports and Community Resiliency Council will advise the province on improvements to existing programs as well as develop new initiatives.
It will be Chaired by Doug Routley, the Minister and with the Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry, and will include 18 members in total.
The Council’s term is for one year, with a possible one-year extension.
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