Employment and community impacts
One industry submission maintains that an allowable annual cut reduction of 35 per cent would cause at least 300 jobs to be lost in the company, and the closure of at least one mill. It contends that the use of person-years as a measure of employment causes an underestimate of the number of jobs and that the number of people employed on a yearly basis is higher than reported in the Socio-Economic Analysis.
Another industry submission also states that a cut reduction is likely to jeopardize jobs.
A local government submission expresses concern that the Socio-Economic Analysis does not adequately estimate the impacts of harvest reductions on local economies, and that it does not consider the cumulative effects of reductions in other timber supply areas.
An environmental group submission states that the Socio-Economic Analysis creates a fear that a drop in the harvest level will lead to local job losses, whereas with Forest Renewal B.C. there is reason to believe this will not be the case.
One public submission indicates that there is a large amount of backlog silviculture work that could be a source of employment and that the silviculture season must be lengthened as support from unemployment insurance is decreased.
