VANCOUVER -- A standoff over the future of a vast swath of forest on the southern tip of Vancouver Island, estimated to be worth about $150-million, is heating up as a regional government contemplates taking a forestry company to court to block its plans to subdivide the area and sell it for development. [Read more...]

Re: "CRD, WFP tangle over forest roads," Aug. 7. The situation has gone beyond enraging and has become ridiculous. How can a Western Forest Products official openly state that the company is clearing roads for subdivision development, and then state that it doesn't have to provide development permits to the Capital Regional District because the land is under forestry use? [Read more...]

Something is seriously wrong when Western Forest Products can argue that it has the right to build roads for subdivisions -- because it's doing the development work on land set aside for forestry. [Read more...]

Western Forest Products is pushing ahead with building roads meant for a housing subdivision, even though the Capital Regional District insists the company doesn’t have the right to do so. In late July, the CRD sent the company a letter demanding it stop building roads on forest land around Jordan River and Shirley. The CRD says the work contravenes development permit rules. However, Western has replied that it does not need a development permit for road building as the land is still private managed forest land and comes under provincial regulations, not CRD rules. [Read more...]

Enbridge Inc. is making big strides with a multibillion-dollar plan to ship crude from Canada's oilsands to Asia, the pipeline operator said Thursday as it reported a more than fourfold jump in second-quarter profit. [Read more...]

After taking over the forestry portfolio a month ago, Prince George-North MLA and Forest and Range Minister Pat Bell has developed a four-point strategy. [Read more...]

Losses among Canada's largest forest companies increased more than 560 per cent in 2007 from 2006, the worst performance in the sector in the world, according to a report released Wednesday by PricewaterhouseCoopers. [Read more...]

VICTORIA -- While lawyers prepare for a court battle over Western Forest Products' attempts to sell off timberlands for real-estate development, company employees were still clearing land yesterday to stake out its proposed subdivision boundaries. [Read more...]

B.C. could see a return to protests and blockades in world-renowned Clayoquot Sound as a forestry company prepares to log an old-growth forest in the Hesquiat Point Creek watershed - the first time a company has begun logging in such a "pristine" valley in nearly 20 years. [Read more...]

Royal Dutch Shell's claim that no water is being produced by coalbed methane test wells is being refuted by the company's own drill logs. [Read more...]

Is former forests minister Rich Coleman the sole villain for making a forests decision without due regard to the public interest? Forest ministers in B.C. have been very lenient with the forest industry for more than 60 years. The auditor general's recent report has just revealed the tip of the iceberg. [Read more...]

Is former forests minister Rich Coleman the sole villain for making a forests decision without due regard to the public interest? Forest ministers in B.C. have been very lenient with the forest industry for more than 60 years. The auditor general's recent report has just revealed the tip of the iceberg. [Read more...]

THE PROVINCIAL government's oil and gas regulator so far hasn't had any issues with Shell's plans to drill for coalbed methane natural gas in the Klappan area, its representatives say. [Read more...]

NEWLY-NAMED forests minister Pat Bell isn’t quite ready to commit himself to continue a specific plan by his predecessor to help a struggling northwest forest industry. [Read more...]

The case for public hearings before prime Jordan River waterfront and forest land is developed has always been strong. After the auditor general's report on the botched way the land was released from tree farm licence provisions, the need for public hearings is overwhelming. [Read more...]

The furious response of Forests Minister Pat Bell to a report on private forest lands was auditor general John Doyle's welcome-home greeting. [Read more...]

VICTORIA -- Armed with just a wafer-thin sheaf of briefing notes, then-forests minister Rich Coleman signed an order last year effectively improving Western Forest Products' bottom line by about $150-million. [Read more...]

Shoot the messenger, change the subject. That was the shabby strategy chosen by the Gordon Campbell government yesterday after gutsy Auditor-General John Doyle slammed them for a $150-million sweetheart deal with a B.C. forest company. [Read more...]

Critics called for Rich Coleman to be removed from cabinet after a damning report by B.C.'s auditor general yesterday slammed the former forests minister for a decision to remove thousands of hectares of land on Vancouver Island from tree farm licences, or TFLs. [Read more...]

B.C.'s conflict-of-interest commissioner is about to take a close opinion of conflict-of-interest commissioner Paul Fraser on allegations Coleman was in conflict with his official responsibilities since his brother Stan is employed by Western Forest Products. [Read more...]

VICTORIA - The B.C. government made a major, controversial land-use decision on Vancouver Island without adequate consultation or proper regard for the public interest, Auditor-General John Doyle said in a scathing report Wednesday. [Read more...]

VICTORIA - British Columbia's auditor general says the Liberal government failed the public by allowing vast tracts of private land to be removed from three publicly managed tree-farm licence areas - a report the government called offensive. [Read more...]

The B.C. government was too quick to allow private land to be removed from tree farm licences, says the province's auditor general. [Read more...]

The Douglas fir forests of southern Vancouver Island are being logged at a faster rate than they were as recently as five years ago, according to a report on private-land logging by resource researcher Ben Parfitt. [Read more...]

Enbridge Inc. is pushing back plans to build a $2.6-billion pipeline that would connect the oil sands to refineries on the U.S. Gulf Coast, blaming the delay on the slow pace of development in Alberta. [Read more...]

“Wood is good.” That was the catch phrase emblazoned across the T-shirt of Okanagan College’s Casey King, and it’s also what most succinctly explained what the new Minister of Forests said to a room full of construction students, Tuesday. [Read more...]

he British Columbia government has launched a campaign to convince the public that its forest industry is an asset when it comes to fighting climate change. [Read more...]

Southern Albertans who treasure the unspoiled qualities of Waterton Lakes National Park may believe the park’s World Heritage Site status serves to protect it from environmental plunder. But that may not be true if a strip mine and a coalbed methane project both eyed for the Flathead Valley in southeastern B.C. — spitting distance from Lethbridge — are allowed by the B.C. government. [Read more...]

The vilification of the oilsands in the United States is fuelling interest among producers of the so-called "dirty oil" to look at new markets overseas, said the chief executive of Canada's largest oil pipeline company [Read more...]

VICTORIA -- Premier Gordon Campbell set the groundwork Monday for next year's provincial election, unveiling changes to his cabinet to address the major issues his government is likely to face in the coming campaign. In a shuffle he termed "a mild review and renewal," Campbell replaced his embattled forest minster, altered his government's approach to housing and mental health issues and attempted to retain a reputation of financial prudence and stability -- all while keeping the same general geographic cabinet makeup [Read more...]

VICTORIA — B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell announced some major changes to his cabinet Monday, naming the team that will likely take him into the next provincial election less than a year away. [Read more...]

VICTORIA -- Carol Perron says she can't come right out and say it, but deep down she knows she's making plans for two deaths: her husband's and her community's. Ms. Perron lives in Mackenzie, a forest industry town in B.C.'s rugged north that's been dropped to its knees by a failing U.S. housing market and the strong Canadian dollar [Read more...]

Cabinet shuffles have become less significant as power has shifted to the office of the premier or prime minister. Still, yesterday's pre-election shuffle by Premier Gordon Campbell brought some positive changes. Most critically, Rich Coleman was moved out of forests, where has been the latest Liberal minister to struggle ineffectually with the challenges faced by the industry. [Read more...]

Carol Perron says she can't come right out and say it, but deep down she knows she's making plans for two deaths: Her husband's and her community's. Perron lives in Mackenzie, a forest industry town in B.C.'s rugged north that's been dropped to its knees by a failing U.S. housing market and the strong Canadian dollar. [Read more...]

Premier Gordon Campbell is expected to shuffle his cabinet early next week, most likely Monday, senior government officials said Friday. [Read more...]

Western Forest Products announced sweeping cutbacks yesterday, laying off 2,000 loggers and sawmill workers in the face of softening demand for cedar products. The numbers, added to recent layoffs and closures in logging, sawmilling and pulp mill operations, have industry experts estimating there could be as many as 5,000 forest industry employees now out of work on Vancouver Island. [Read more...]

As the global oil industry prepares for a rare meeting of oil-producing and consuming nations and companies this weekend in Saudi Arabia aimed at addressing skyrocketing crude prices, U.S. President George W. Bush is seeking to take the brakes off U.S. production. [Read more...]

About 50 people gathered outside the Hyatt Regency to protest the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers investment conference, an annual event that draws hundreds of oil executives and well-heeled corporate clientele from around the globe. On Monday, that list included rural landowners angry about new power lines crossing their properties in central Alberta; cabin owners upset by an oil pipeline leak into a resort lake; and environmentalists fearful about the impact of heavy oil upgraders being built north of Edmonton [Read more...]

British Columbia appears to be neglecting its valuable forest land base as the industry and government take chances while waiting out an economic downturn, Opposition forests critic Bob Simpson says. [Read more...]

Can Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) be used as a lethal weapon of mass destruction? That question lies at the heart of the debate about increasing use of this important energy resource. The answers are not reassuring. Nor are the questions. [Read more...]