Boomstick permits -- a safety risk?

Months ago, we raised safety concerns over plans to let mills use boomstick permits to transport over-length beetle-killed pine logs and get more weight on trucks already at maximum height and width.
The permit was granted, with conditions such as signage and getting off the highways when visibility was low, and now, in some parts of the Interior, motorists run the risk of meeting an over-length log truck on the highway that – if it turns right – could swing up to six metres of logs sticking out beyond the last stake into the oncoming lane.
We’ve since heard second-hand reports about four incidents where the extended logs are said to have struck other vehicles: The side of a chip trailer in Smithers, a pickup windshield in the Lakes District; a bus in the Cariboo and last week, a school bus near McBride.
We haven’t been able to confirm whether or not these reported incidents actually happened, and to be fair, we hate spreading unconfirmed reports – but lives could be endangered. If the incidents happened they should be reported, and the risk factor reassessed. If they didn’t, can someone in authority – anyone – clear this up?
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This just in this morning: The incident in Smithers has been confirmed, and the problem has been rectified. An oncoming chip truck was damaged when logs sticking out behind a loaded logging truck swung into the other lane when the log truck began a 90-degree turn onto a road leading to the mill. The Town of Smithers donated some land, and a deceleration and passing lane was built to allow trucks to turn without putting oncoming traffic at risk.
One down, three more to clear up.

Who covers safety on resource roads?

We hear by the grapevine that there was a huddle in Vancouver last week to try to sort out who’s responsible for safety on forestry roads. Attending were representatives from WorkSafe BC, the Ministry of Forests and Range, a couple of major licensees and the Council of Forest Industries, and the BC Forest Safety Council.
The hot topic, we hear, was the jurisdiction question. Neither MOFR nor mills feel they should have responsibility for enforcing safety on these roads because they don’t have on-the-ground supervision, and there are also questions about whether WorkSafe BC has jurisdiction over them. So who’s left to do it? The RCMP? Logging contractors?
Somebody has to, and it’s a good thing it’s being discussed. Although it appears to be a legal, jurisdictional question, one has to wonder if it will at some stage become a matter of negotiation.

CILA planning future success

We live in changing times, and every company must periodically review how it deals with customers, opportunities and service demands, and associations like the CILA are not exempt.
Over recent weeks, we’ve moved through a strategic planning process that gathered input from members, Directors and others in our industry.
We’re in the final stage of developing an action plan that will guide us over the next three years in areas of services to our members and expanding our activities. In the next few weeks, you’ll see some important surveys in our newsletter that both members and prospective members can use to help guide us regarding priorities and services.
We say ‘prospective members’ because we feel it’s important to encourage more of our newsletter readers to join the only association in the Central Interior that is effective in improving the regulatory and business environment for loggers, truckers and suppliers.
CILA membership isn’t an obligation – it’s an investment – and when you read items in this newsletter about some of our activities, you’re getting just a sniff of what we’re all about. Our members get a whole lot more, from full details about regulatory changes and new business opportunities to strategic help and benefit plans.

Hours of service still unclear

Be wary of offers, workshops and courses to bring you up to speed on how the new trucking hours of service will apply to log-haulers, because there’s still no official word from Commercial Vehicle Safety & Enforcement on what a log-hauling variance for B.C. will look like.
We think we know, because the CILA, COFI and Canfor were the three organizations that negotiated with CVSE last spring for the variance, but it’s not set as a regulation yet. Meanwhile, we’ve heard from different areas that even some CVSE staff have different interpretations of the rules. If they’re not sure, how can anyone else be?

Worker shortage will bit industry hard

Although most loggers and truckers across our region are back at work, getting enough skilled workers for startup hasn’t been easy.
Sporadic work and lengthy shutdowns (more coming over the next few weeks) have caused key operators to leave for steadier work.
There’s lots of talk about more recruiting, more training, needs assessments and other measures to fill those jobs, but the truth is that unless all levels of the forest industry get a grip on the fact that too many workers view logging-sector jobs as part-time work, and find some solutions, we’re in for a capacity crisis.
Let’s start now, working together in a co-operative way to (a) identify the reasons why the worker turnover problem is so severe, and (b) find mutually-beneficial ways to address them. We’re a phone call away.

Quicker reports needed on industry deaths

If we’re serious about reducing the number of deaths and serious injuries in the forest industry, information from investigating agencies such as the coroner’s office and WorkSafe BC must flow much more quickly to the public and to industry.
Case in point: Last week’s coroner’s report that said fatigue, excessive speed prescription drug use, and failure to wear a seatbelt were all factors the death of a logging truck driver in a crash two years ago.
WorkSafe BC also investigated the accident, but its reports, when available months later, usually have many pertinent details blacked out, which makes it difficult if not impossible for the news media to report it completely, and for industry to take preventive measures.
To put it clearly, both of those agencies are letting us all down.
Part of WorkSafe BC’s mandate is accident prevention, and one would think that getting detailed reports out quickly would be a key part of a prevention strategy. So why censor accident reports so severely that vital, life-saving information is absent – especially when WorkSafe BC knows the coroner will eventually release all the findings?
How many lives could be saved if these WorkSafe and coroners’ reports on crashes and deaths came out within weeks or even months, instead of years?

Worker shortage biting harder

Last week it was Canfor CEO Jim Shepherd talking about losing mill workers to the oil patch; this week, Roger Harris, B.C.’ s Forest Safety Ombudsman, said B.C.’s economy is facing a looming crisis because the forest industry can’t recruit enough new people.

The shortage of skilled workers has links to safety concerns, and Harris is writing a report he hopes will help industry dodge the crisis that is being fed by factors ranging from the aging work force and safety issues to lack of training opportunities for new workers.

The four logging associations are working on a skilled worker needs assessment to determine just how bad the problem is; the next step is to build retention and recruiting strategies that work.

That will be tough, because we still face a huge problem.

The stop-start logging and especially log-hauling seasons that are the norm in this industry is a quality-of-life issue that’s bleeding workers away. Hourly pay rates don’t compensate for long shutdowns and then the long days when workers are on the job.

Government can’t fix that and neither can we, but forest companies can. The need to understand that their quest for just-in-time log deliveries has created serious shortages of skilled workers in the harvest sector in some, if not all regions of the province.

What they save by compressed operating seasons will be gobbled up by the higher rates they will have to pay to keep loggers and truckers. If that doesn’t work, the whole industry suffers.

We’re working for our member contractors to find new customers who will offer work for more weeks a year; we’d also like to work with mills to help stabilize this situation before it’s too late.

The competitive edge

In last week’s newsletter we referred to information we’d gathered on possible work opportunities in the oil patch, and on ways to help our member contractors fend off poachers (companies that try to lure away your best workers).
We’ve been getting calls on both items, and the poacher-proofing package was sent to all CILA members this week. The oil patch memo is a phone call away.
In our search, we ran across lots of other useful information. One example: The CILA now subscribes to a publication offering regular updates on dispute resolution methods aimed at resolving problems before they get to the mediation/arbitration stage. As they come in, we’ll make them available to members.
(P.S. – Non-members frequently call for such information, but in fairness, we restrict it to members only – they pay dues that help us provide these services; they gain the benefit and the competitive edge.

Clayoquot ‘War in the woods’ to resume?

Old-growth valleys in B.C.'s Clayoquot Sound have been opened up once again for logging after a joint provincial government-First Nations board approved watershed development plans.
The watersheds were put under a voluntary moratorium in the mid-1990s so land-use planning in Clayoquot Sound could be completed.
The Clayoquot Sound Central Region Board board agreed to open eight major watersheds to logging, including areas environmental groups have long claimed are irreplaceable.
Jim Lornie, provincial co-chair, said a total logging ban was never contemplated, adding the board hopes to balance economic activity and environmental protection. "You really have to factor in the interests of first nations here. At some point down the road they are going to want to put treaties in place and they are going to want to have some form of an economy, whatever the scale of it is, to support their people,"
The decision drew immediate fire from environmental groups, and a warning from Green Party leader Adriane Carr that the "war in the woods" that rocked B.C. during the early 1990s could be on again.

Enviro groups push for more logging bans

Twelve environmental groups in central and southern B.C. say the area is losing many species of plants and wildlife that depend on old-growth forest and wilderness, and have signed a declaration that says the major cause is habitat loss due to logging, roads and hydro development.
The declaration calls on Ottawa and the province to stop logging of all forests more than 140 years old, reduce the Allowable Annual Cut, create more protected areas and wildlife corridors, restrict motorized recreation and protect remaining undisturbed areas and all subpopulations of species at risk.

Special economic zone for Northwest?

People from virtually every sector of the northwest woods industry are once again calling on the provincial government to designate the area a special economic zone for forestry to help the industry get back on its feet.
The Terrace area is plagued by low-value timber and high-cost harvesting, meaning there has been limited forest activity there for several years.

CILA Board meets Aug. 11

CILA Directors and members will meet Aug. 11 in Prince George for a regular board meeting, starting at 10.30 a.m. If you’re planning to attend, please call the office before Aug. 4; seating is limited.
Our luncheon guest is Roger Latta, a financial consultant who specializes in business succession planning.
We’ve been hearing more frequently from contractors who plan to retire and/or exit the business in one way or another -- transfer it to family members, merge with other companies, sell out or wind the business down – and we felt providing a connection to professional advice would be helpful.
Members will gain useful tips on timing, managing the transition, identifying key personnel and arranging financing.
Also on the agenda: Updates on work to move the CILA’s strategic planning session forward, activities of the BC Forest Safety Council including the prime contractor issue, BC Timber Sales, and review of WorkSafe BC regulations.

The oil patch: Opportunity and risk

A meeting in Prince George this week on business opportunities in the oil/gas industry was an eye-opener for anyone interested in diversifying a business or seeking new customers for their services.
The oil patch has really revved up and demand for skilled tradespeople and service companies is high. There are opportunities for contractors in logging, road-building, excavating and trucking, and it pays well; the key is connecting with the right people in that industry. CILA members received a detailed briefing memo earlier this week.
There’s also a down side to all this activity: Whether you diversify and find work in the oil patch or not, you’re already battling to recruit and keep qualified, skilled workers.
The CILA has been gathering information and identifying individuals and organizations that can help make your business more ‘poacher-proof.’ Members who are interested can call the office.

Forest worker training to be reviewed

Roger Harris, B.C.’s Forest Safety Ombudsman, is about to launch a review of training and certification within the forest industry, looking at how those processes apply to fallers and truck drivers – two occupations with a high rate of serious injury and fatalities.
“Effective training and certification is fundamental to improving the safety performance of our industry” says Harris. The review will look at all groups involved in the training and certification process and make recommendations that tie them together. The aim is to provide guidance to the different forest sectors, regulators and agencies on how to implement and dovetail components of training and certification.
Harris says he will continue to deal with issues raised by workers and companies, including designation of prime contractors and responsibility for road safety.

Will court wins sink trade pact?

Canada won another huge court victory this week when the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled that the U.S. illegally kept applying lumber tariffs after a NAFTA panel ruled there was no basis for them. The duties are illegal, and so has been the collecting of them.
A week earlier, the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the U.S. government cannot use the Byrd Amendment to steer any more of the tariff dollars it collected into the hands of U.S. lumber companies.
To summarize: The duties were illegal, collecting them has been illegal, giving part of the money to U.S. forest companies is illegal – and, by the way, the Byrd Amendment was ruled illegal last April.
So why is our federal government so intent on pushing a badly-flawed lumber trade agreement through the House of Commons this fall?

Why would our government want to make a deal -- over the objections of most of the B.C. forest industry and four other lumber-producing provinces -- that would leave $1 billion in illegally-applied and collected duties in Washington's hands, waive all legal actions, now and in the future, accept quotas and apply a border tax structure that will cost producers more than the illegal tariffs did?

Yes, we need lumber trade peace – but not with this price tag.