Madam Speaker, I thank my colleagues from Prince George and Cariboo--Chilcotin.
The private member's motion that the member for Cariboo--Chilcotin has brought forward, Motion No. 435, is a pretty simple, easily done with a will to do it, motion. All he is asking for is the federal government to accept responsibility for a huge issue in north central British Columbia. It is something that started out relatively small about 10 or 12 years ago and has grown now to an absolute epidemic that is devastating communities and people in the areas.
I want to say that the mountain pine beetle epidemic is literally spreading its wings. That is what it does. It flies. It is moving into the eastern areas of my riding of Skeena from the other two ridings in north central British Columbia.
The devastation caused by this relentless pest must truly be seen for anyone to understand the scope of the scourge. It has devastated a huge area. It is somewhere in the neighbourhood of four times the size of Vancouver Island and bigger than most European countries. It is absolutely unbelievable. It has to be seen.
Some 70 million cubic metres of timber was infected as of last fall. After this mild winter that we have had, when the beetles fly again this spring and summer there would probably be something like 100 million to 130 million cubic metres infested. The total annual allowable cut of the province of British Columbia is in the neighbourhood of 75 million to 80 million cubic metres. It is more than the whole year's allowable cut of timber for the province that is infected. This cannot be allowed to go on.
I want to give a little background on this pest. The pine beetle is a natural part of the environment. In our zeal over the last 60, 70 or 80 years to fight forest fires we have thrown the whole ecological balance out of whack. We have effectively fought forest fires, allowed the pine forests to grow older and allowed the beetles to move in whereas before fires would burn those beetles and naturally control the epidemic. That is out of whack now. The beetles have moved in and they have taken over the older trees.
Like people, trees get old, sick and vulnerable. Then the beetles move in. When they have eaten up a lot of the old trees they move on to the middle aged trees and the younger trees. That is what is happening because of the lack of forest fires to control these pests. We can blame it on global warming but I do not buy that. It is more a matter of our systems that have changed. When we get things a little out of balance like that we must control them in another way. We have controlled fires but we also have to control beetles. We have not done that.
This beetle epidemic started out very small in Tweedsmuir Provincial Park and it has grown now. It started out in a small area about 12 years ago. It now covers an area 700 kilometres long and 400 kilometres wide. It is four times the size of Vancouver Island. The economic value of that is something like $6 billion in potential lumber value and huge losses to the province of British Columbia and the economy of Canada.
There is a responsibility for the federal government. The member over there listed a number of things it can do: rehabilitation; a joint venture with native bands; research, and the federal government has the research station on Vancouver Island which does a fair bit of work on this thing; and marketing. That is great. Let us do it. When will we start?
That is part of the solution but we also need to go far beyond that. We need innovative solutions and the federal government to help us with this. This is a catastrophic event. Communities in my riding and in other ridings are suffering. It is not acceptable to say that we might do something or that we are trying. That is not good enough. We must get the federal government involved in a firmer and much stronger way with the province.