The B.C government needs to make a clear statement on whether or not it favours logging old-growth forests in B.C.

On Monday, traditional chiefs of three Vancouver Island First Nations, the Pacheedaht, Ditidaht, and Huu-ay-aht, announced they want the province to defer any logging in and around the Fairy Creek area while they create their own stewardship plans.

Premier John Horgan has said the government will honour that with a two-year deferral while First Nations work with B.C. 鈥� but it鈥檚 not a pledge never to log the area, with or without the participation of the local First Nations.

It鈥檚 similar to the language the NDP used in its last election campaign.

鈥淚鈥檓 committed to protecting old growth and biodiversity while supporting forest workers and communities,鈥� Horgan wrote.

Okay, but when it comes to specific stands of trees, which one is it? Old growth and biodiversity, or forestry jobs?

Later in the same campaign promise was this sentence: 鈥淢any of our old-growth stands are worth more standing up than they ever could be cut down鈥︹��

鈥淢any鈥� is the load-bearing element of that sentence. Many doesn鈥檛 mean all! But it was an implicit promise to protect forests, to chart a new economic path that relied less on extracting a resource that, on the Coast, takes 800 years to grow back.

This government needs to consult with First Nations, consult with coastal resource-dependent communities, and then announce a long-term plan. That plan should set hard limits on how much old growth, if any, can ever be harvested again in B.C.

Someday soon, we鈥檒l have to phase out large-scale old growth logging, or risk destroying unique habitats. The debate we鈥檙e having now is about whether we do it sooner or later, and about how we chart an economic course for our province when we stop cutting down 800-year-old trees.

鈥� M.C.