Whereas the lack of adequate and affordable fiber supply has been identified as a key factor in the continued curtailment or permanent closure of BCs sawmills and pulp mills, causing loss of employment and tax income for resource-based and resource-dependent communities; And whereas from 2.8 to 3.5 million cubic meters of raw logs have been exported from BC annually over the last five years, in addition to lumber cant exports not included in those statistics: Therefore be it resolved that UBCM call on the provincial government and federal governments to ban the export of raw logs and lumber cants from BC to ensure that forests harvested in BC from crown land and private managed forest lands are processed in BC, encouraging value-added manufacturing in BC and supporting employment in BCs forest industry, and that BC mills are supported in a transition to utilize a full spectrum of marketable tree species.
