Bell Calls on NDP Leader to Fire Reckless and Incompetent Forests Critic

NDP leader Carole James should immediately strip Cariboo North NDP candidate Bob Simpson of his forests critic role after he made dishonest, reckless comments to a forestry trade journal, accusing B.C. companies of breaking the law and encouraging U.S. companies to sue them, putting thousands of workers' jobs at risk, says BC Liberal Forests Minister Pat Bell.

May 7, 2009

Prince George – NDP leader Carole James should immediately strip Cariboo North NDP candidate Bob Simpson of his forests critic role after he made dishonest, reckless comments to a forestry trade journal, accusing B.C. companies of breaking the law and encouraging U.S. companies to sue them, putting thousands of workers' jobs at risk, says BC Liberal Forests Minister Pat Bell. 

“To call up a trade journal and make reckless and unfounded allegations that B.C. forest companies are actively breaking the law, and then encouraging the American lumber lobby to sue, is absolutely repugnant at a time like this,” said Bell. “Yet that is exactly what NDP forests critic Bob Simpson has done. By stating on the record his belief that the American lumber lobby is entitled to $500 million in damages from B.C. forest companies – based on his limited knowledge of our forest industry and trade laws – he puts forest workers jobs at risk and could cost our forest companies millions more in legal wrangling. Carole James must immediately fire her forests critic to send a signal that B.C. forest workers’ jobs must come before irresponsible political rhetoric.”

Bell was responding to Simpson’s comments published in the Canadian trade journal Madison’s Lumber, in which Simpson claims that B.C. forest companies are illegally manipulating the stumpage system and that as a result, Americans are entitled to “punitive damages in the amount of $500 million.” 

Jake Kerr, former CEO of Lignum Forest Products and former chair of the BC Softwood Lumber Trade Council, has told Vancouver Sun reporter Gordon Hamilton that Simpson’s comments handed ammunition to the Americans that will put B.C.’s entire sawmilling industry at risk. Kerr went on to say that Simpson has “not only convicted the industry but he's decided we (B.C. forest companies) should pay half a billion dollars….it’s very scary.” When asked to respond, Simpson refused to recant his comments and instead expanded on them, stating that he thought the current stumpage regime was “not defensible.”

“No matter which side of the House you are on, all MLAs should be standing up for B.C.’s forest industry and protecting forest workers’ jobs,” said Bell. “Never before in our province's history has a forests critic actively encouraged American interests to sue B.C. forest companies for $500 million in damages. Bob Simpson is either woefully ignorant or deliberately trying to provoke an American lawsuit that would destroy thousands of jobs. Either way, Carole James needs to immediately strip Bob Simpson of his forests critic role before he does more damage to B.C.’s forest industry.”

CEOs of B.C.’s major forest companies have already released a statement saying that the NDP and Bob Simpson’s forest polices are “high risk in the extreme” and “would further jeopardize the economic stability of B.C. companies, their employees and the communities in which they live and work.”

“Our forest industry has been hard hit by the global economic crisis,” said Bell. “Yet Carole James has not taken the time to talk to anyone in the forest industry.  The policies the NDP are promoting have been universally condemned by the industry as reckless job killers. It is time Carole James listened and learned about the damage her policies would do to people's lives. She must fire Bob Simpson and put an end to her party’s reckless economic policies before any further damage is done.”

The Madison’s Lumber Reporter article can be found at: http://www.madisonsreport.com/index.html