Post Throne Speech Comments from the Premier Reference Appurtenancy

VICTORIA — Over a few brief sentences in the throne speech this week, the NDP government signalled it will begin restoring the requirement that timber harvested from public lands be processed in nearby mills. …“By encouraging the development of new products and processes, your government will work with industry, First Nations, workers and communities to make forestry even stronger, and maximize the value B.C. gets out of each log.” Did that last bit… mean that the New Democrats would be moving to restrict raw log exports? “That’s certainly my intention,” Horgan told reporters. …In a followup conversation with the premier Wednesday, I suggested he was proposing to bring back “appurtenancy,” a requirement in the Forest Act that tied specific timber harvesting rights (tree farms and other tenures) to specific mills in communities within reasonable distance of  the trees. Horgan confirmed he was indeed proposing to bring back “appurtenancy.”