By: Isabella Urbani, Staff Writer
On May 3, Liberal MP Patrick Weiler initiated a private member’s motion, or M-83, to make forestry more sustainable in BC. The motion calls for three demands: the end of old-growth logging on federal lands, a ban on the selling of its exports, and a $27 million increase in the environmental and sustainability budget from $55 million to $82 million.
Weiler, who represents West Vancouver, Sunshine Coast, and Sea to Sky Country, has been passionate about protecting old-growth forests ever since he took a camping trip to Carmanah Walbran Provincial Park when he was seven years old.
In an interview with The Peak, Weiler said it’s been “hard” to watch the federal and provincial governments cut down old-growth trees — trees 250 years and older — for the past 30 years. He noticed old-growth logging becoming a topic of concern in BC after the Fairy Creek protests in 2021.
“I feel kind of powerless as a federal MP,” said Weiler. “So much of this is really up to the provinces, given that old growth, and forests generally are on provincial crown lands. But there are things that the federal government can do.”
In 2019, the federal government promised that 25% of federal lands will be considered conservation areas by 2025, and 30% by 2030. Currently, only 13.5% of federal land is protected.
Private member motions are the only way non-cabinet members, like Weiler, can have their motions debated in the House of Commons. All private member motions are ordered through a lottery. Motions can only move up if adopted by an MP higher on the list. With 70 motions already seen by the cabinet, Weiler’s M-83 motion, picked 144th, is 74 spots away from the front of the line. However, Weiler remains optimistic that the “cross-party support” his motion has received so far, will move him closer down the list.
Weiler referred to old-growth forests as, “integral to who we are as Canadians, but also, especially, for Indigenous peoples.”
According to Weiler, Indigenous communities will be consulted on old-growth forests residing on Indigenous lands, and will receive compensation if said land becomes permanently protected under M-83.
“This is not an issue where you have unanimity across Indigenous peoples,” said Weiler. “There are many nations that are involved in the forestry sector, where this is a key source of livelihoods, and then there are many others that are wanting to do everything they can to protect these old-growth forests.”
Aside from “natural heritage,” Weiler explained how old-growth trees are home to at-risk species like the marbled muralists and spotted owls, and are a “nature-based solution to climate change” because they absorb carbon. A study conducted at the University of Hamburg in Germany found almost 70% of carbon absorption occurs later in a tree’s life. So old-growth trees “are worth way more standing than they can ever be when they’re cut down.”
The increase in sustainability government spending, also a part of the motion, is meant to transition companies dependent on old-growth logging to second and third-growth forests, which are forests that have been previously logged and grown back. M-83 will also stop the export of old-growth trees.
“It’s incumbent upon us to make sure the type of products we’re shipping are not contributing to the type of environmental degradation that is increasingly of concern for countries all around the world.”
When a forest degrades, it’s unable to provide the same benefits it previously supplied to an ecosystem. “We have governments, particularly the European Union, that are very concerned about the imports of products that are leading to forest degradation,” said Weiler.
But some forestry workers aren’t seeing eye-to-eye with Weiler’s vision. Joe Namath, project manager for the BC Pulp and Paper Coalition, said M-83 would “sink the industry” and “[destroy] rural communities” if passed. Weiler said otherwise, calling the response “emotional” and a “little bit ridiculous.”
“To make the case that the only way the forestry industry can survive in BC, is by harvesting areas that are, by their very nature, finite and increasingly being lost, is to say that there is no sustainable forest industry in BC. And I reject that premise,” said Weiler.
