VICTORIA, B.C. – B.C. Green Party leader MLA Sonia Furstenau for Cowichan Valley tabled a Stand.Earth petition with the signatures of 52,204 British Columbians calling for the government to keep its promises to implement deferrals on old-growth logging. This comes as the Minister of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development failed to announce promised deferrals this summer.
“It has been a year and a half since the strategic review panel report recommended a six-month timeline to defer logging in old-growth forests at risk of irreversible biodiversity loss. In June the BC NDP promised more deferrals were forthcoming - but we still haven’t seen them,” said MLA Furstenau. “In the meantime, logging is ongoing.
“Many Indigenous communities across the province have been calling for these deferrals and for support as they transition their economic models in light of the climate crisis. Despite the BC NDP’s grandiose statements on reconciliation and old-growth protection, only a handful of deferrals have been granted.
“This summer, British Columbians experienced tragic loss as climate change claimed hundreds of lives and destroyed homes during the heat dome and wildfires. Protecting old-growth is a critical component of climate action, but the BC NDP clearly lacks the leadership we so urgently need. While they talk and log, Fairy Creek became the largest act of civil disobedience in Canadian history - and still, they did nothing.
“I am honoured to have tabled this important petition today. The signatories remind us once again that British Columbians care deeply about old-growth and are urgently organizing to hold the BC NDP accountable to the promises they made.”
The entire petition included 159,615 signatures from Canada and around the world, but only signatures from British Columbians are permissible on petitions tabled in the Legislative Assembly.
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