To the editor:

As a forest worker who has heard the words "sorry fellas, we won't be running for a while - we don't have the logs", I find the decision by this government to allow the export of raw logs from the Skeena region disgusting. The exporting of 28,000 truck loads of logs from an already devastated area of this province is inexcusable.

The study recently released on log exports by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) states that the area will loose 800 direct jobs and $162 million dollars in wages and benefits. These logs are being exported because they are supposedly "excess" to our domestic needs, in other words we don't have the milling capacity to process them. The truth is that there are sawmills sitting idle in this region of the province.

Only three months prior to signing the order in council to allow these logs to be exported, government received the Pearse report by forestry analyst Peter Pearse which calls for the closure of between 8 and 16 coastal sawmills because there isn't enough logs to sustain them.

This export order was signed with no public consultation and no legislative debate. Is this an example of Gordon Campbell's new era of openness and accountability? Short term pain for long term gain? Or is it just another corporate gift? Shipping out raw logs and sacrificing good paying forest sector manufacturing jobs is no way to get this province back on the road to economic prosperity.

I would again like to remind this government that the crown forests of this province are publicly owned, and there is a "social contract" in place here. That contract is to provide as many jobs as possible from the use of this very valuable resource. STOP EXPORTING OUR RAW LOGS!

Ken Barker

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