Up in smoke: B.C. backtracks on promise to deter logging industry from burning wood waste

By Ben Parfitt
The Narwhal
May 23, 2020
Category: Forestry
Region: Canada, United States

Opponents of the widespread practice of burning wood waste at logging sites across British Columbia say the government is backpedalling on a commitment to suppress the controversial practice by subjecting it to the carbon tax. When George Heyman became Minister of Environment and Climate Change Strategy in July 2017, Premier John Horgan instructed him to extend the carbon tax to so-called “slash-pile burning” operations. The thinking was that the tax would force the industry to alter course. But nearly three years into the government’s mandate, the tax has not been extended and Heyman’s ministry won’t say if and when it will be. …Yet some say the province’s delay is creating a cascade of problems as slash-pile emissions inflate B.C.’s climate impacts, heighten air quality concerns and lead to industrial practices that see valuable wood products going up in smoke.

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