Public subsidy of the BC forest industry

THERE'S A LONG-STANDING MYTH about BC's forest industry—that it pays the province's bills through stumpage payments, export taxes, its purchase of publicly owned water and electricity, its payment of corporate and property taxes and the income taxes paid by forestry workers. Thirty or forty years ago, the industry may have paid its bills, but even that is no longer true. Without a huge public subsidy, the industry would collapse. That subsidy includes low stumapge rates that don't even cover the cost of managing BC's forests by the ministry of forests. It includes the low rates charged for electricity for sawmills, pulp and paper mills, and panel mills by BC Hydro. The subsidy also includes the low rates charged for water for pulp and paper mills.