Keep B.C. logs here in province, says NDP leader

The B.C. NDP says raw log exports are costing British Columbians jobs that could otherwise remain in the province.

In a news release, NDP leader John Horgan said the province has lost 30,000 forestry jobs since the B.C. Liberals took power in 2001.

Horgan attributed that loss to raw logs being exported for processing elsewhere.

"The only logs that leave B.C. should be the logs that we can't use in B.C. communities, in B.C. mills and B.C. wood-product manufacturing," Horgan said in the release.

Raw log exports have risenabout 120 per cent since 2001, the release said, and about 500 per cent over yearly averages during the 1990s.

Horgan said the export increases are due to the policies of Christy Clark's Liberal government.

He said curtailing log exports would be part of his plan to create more jobs in B.C. if the NDP forms the next government.

"We'll stop the pattern of political interference when it comes to raw log export levels," Horgan said in the release.

"Forest workers and their families are seeing their jobs and their future being shipped out of their communities because Christy Clark is letting big corporations export local logs without any processing here in B.C."