Canada’s federal government is to spend C$100m to help fight the pine beetle epidemic in British Columbia.
The government called the epidemic a crisis of national proportions which is threatening to cross provincial boundaries.
British Columbia’s provinical government welcomed the cash injection as a recognition of the seriousness of the situation. But its forest minister Mike de Jong called for more money due to the C$1.5bn 10-year cost of helping the forest industry deal with the devastation.
The province, together with neighbouring Alberta, recently called on the federal government to take action due to the infestation reaching Alberta, putting C$23bn worth of timber at risk.
However, the C$100m has been described by some as a political statement before the May 17 provincial elections. The conservative party described the federal government as “short-sighted” for failing to come up with a 10-15 year plan of dealing with the beetle.
BLOB
A First Nations group in Kamloops is to receive C$2.5m and 277,000m3 of timber over five years in a deal with the British Columbia provincial government.
