April 13, 2017
Volume 17, Issue 8
Warning: Some of the biases of this publication may contain facts.
Provincial Government Bans Reckless Shooting On Fraser Valley Forestry Roads
Municipal and regional governments, the RCMP and the WFCA have succeeded in having indiscriminate target shooting banned from forestry roads in parts of the Fraser Valley. Minister of Forests Steve Thomson made the announcement April 6th creating “no shooting” zones within 400 metres of select roads on non-municipal Crown land within the Fraser Valley Regional District. The changes apply to recreational shooting and target practice and will not affect licensed hunting and trapping, or impact First Nations’ traditional rights. Residents, hikers and forestry workers all feared it was only a matter of time before someone ended up shot by stray bullets. Besides the risk to public safety, large swathes of roadside and timber have been degraded and damaged by refuse and lead.
The Sun Will Return This Spring And With It The Risk Of Skin Cancer To Workers
Not withstanding the slow start to this spring and the intermittency lately of the sun in many parts of the province we have it on good authority, given the arc of the earth’s current orbit, the coriolis effect, the Jetstream, the return of El Niño, along with other seasonal portents and prodigies sunshine will soon return in good order as a feature of our workplace. That brings with it certain risks to workers who will spend the better part of the day exposed to it. One, in particular, is skin cancer, something not unknown to forestry workers as you will read in our skin cancer alert.
George Abbott To Head Up Logging Contractor Sustainability Review
Earlier this year Premier Clark promised independent loggers at the Truck Loggers’ Association annual convention a logging contractor sustainability review. That process will now go ahead with the appointment of former BC Cabinet Minister George Abbott as the independent facilitator for the review. The main part of Abbott’s job will be to examine evidence and facilitate problem solving between contractors and licensees on rates and competition in the province’s independent logging contracting sector. Over the last years the TLA and other logging groups have warned their businesses are increasingly at risk of being unable to earn a rate of return that can keep them in business. One of the key areas to be examined will be the contractors’ relationship with their licensee clients, particularly in the light of contractual fairness. Although the silviculture and forestry services markets are different from the logging sector they do have things in common with the logging sector: negative or stagnant market trends; the same clients; and some of the same impacts of industry consolidation including fewer buyers for their services. The WFCA will be paying close attention to this process and its recommendations.