The Canadian Softwood Exemptions

The Canadian Softwood Exemptions

You may have heard mentioned on CBC that there are three Atlantic Provinces declared exempt by the US from heavy softwood countervailing duties. However, you may not have noticed that the CBC has not explained why Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador have been given these exemptions. Why not?  CBC just can’t bring themselves to hurt the feelings of the international logging companies operating in BC public forests.  CBC used to be a program for Canadians; not so much anymore.  It now seems to operate more on the international stage that suits the globalists.  In this view, bigger is better.  And bigger has bigger power.

In June, US Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross excluded three Atlantic Canadian provinces, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, and Newfoundland and Labrador from the countervailing duties for softwood.  The rationale for that exclusion by the American government is “that lumber companies in those provinces gets most of their wood from private lands and so do not benefit unfairly from the use of Crown lands”.

Secretary Ross means that the Maritime Provinces pay the market rate for the trees they harvest.  He means the other provinces, including BC, do not.  In BC the logging companies steal the trees (broadly speaking) from public forests.  From unceded Indian land.  And from us, BC citizens.  Of course BC softwood is subsidized.   Again, by us.  We can stop it.  The international logging companies should pay the market rate for the trees they plunder from public forests.  They should also be required, along with the minister of forests, to learn from First Nations the art of controlled burning of forest debris that prevents the kind of catastrophic fires we are experiencing now.  We must find ways to demand this or our province, except for the cities, will become a burned over wasteland.