Editorial cartoon about the Williams Lake timber supply review, forestry workers and a large Cariboo map asking Victoria to show the jobs math.
Editorial cartoon: the Williams Lake timber review should come with a clear public jobs and supply ledger.
Bottom line: the Williams Lake timber supply review covers a huge Cariboo land base, a nearly three-million-cubic-metre AAC, and input from 28 Nations. The NDP owes the public a transparent jobs-and-fibre scoreboard before the next decision.

The B.C. government has opened public feedback on the Williams Lake timber supply review, and this is exactly the kind of file where Premier David Eby’s rural-economy promises meet hard numbers. The Province says people can comment on the discussion paper before Oct. 5, 2026, and that the feedback will inform the chief forester’s next allowable annual cut decision.

The scale is not small. The Province describes the Williams Lake timber supply area as approximately five million hectares in the Cariboo region, administered by the Cariboo Chilcotin Natural Resource District. The current allowable annual cut is nearly three million cubic metres per year; the detailed government page lists the adjusted AAC as 2,937,509 cubic metres effective April 4, 2017.

That is not just a forestry statistic. It is the supply base behind mills, contractors, truckers, families, municipal tax bases and small businesses across Williams Lake, Horsefly, Alexis Creek, Anahim Lake, Tatla Lake and surrounding communities. If the AAC changes, the public should know what each scenario means for harvest volumes, working shifts, fibre availability, local revenues and the long chain of jobs attached to the forest sector.

First Nations input is also central, and it should not be treated as an afterthought or a political scapegoat. The Province says 10 First Nations communities are within the TSA and another 18 First Nations have asserted territories in the TSA. All 28 Nations have been invited to provide input. The fair accountability question is not whether those voices should be heard; they should. The question is whether the NDP government will show the public how competing objectives are reconciled before the decision is made.

Victoria’s release says the chief forester’s determination is an independent professional judgment based on technical forestry reports, First Nations engagement, public input and government’s social and economic objectives. Good. Then publish the scoreboard in plain language. How much merchantable timber is available under each scenario? How much is constrained by wildfire, beetle impacts, conservation, proven title lands, old-growth policy, access limits and land-use decisions? How many jobs and businesses are exposed if the supply assumptions move?

The government’s own engagement page says the review considers impacts on timber supply, the economy, the environment and social conditions. That gives the NDP no excuse to hide behind process. Rural communities are not asking for a rubber stamp. They are asking for certainty, timelines and honest trade-off math.

Williams Lake deserves a decision process that respects Nations, protects ecosystems and tells workers the truth. If the NDP wants rural confidence, it should publish the jobs impact, fibre assumptions and decision timeline before the AAC is reset — not after communities are left to absorb the result.

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