Madam Speaker, it is an honour to table this petition today. It is initiated by Adrian Hough in Nanaimo—Ladysmith and has had more than 15,000 signatures with the e-petition and the paper petitions combined.
The petitioners are deeply concerned about the ongoing logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems, an ecosystem that has less than 3% of it remaining in British Columbia. Threatened screech owls have been found in the areas that are being logged. More than 130 people have been arrested, including first nations youth from the Pacheedaht First Nation, whose territory this lies within, and seniors who are lining up to be arrested as well.
The petitioners are calling upon the Government of Canada to work with the provinces and the first nations to immediately halt logging of endangered old-growth ecosystems; fund the long-term protection of old-growth ecosystems as a priority for Canada's climate action plan and reconciliation with indigenous people; support value-added forestry initiatives in partnership with first nations to ensure Canada's forestry industry is sustainable and based on the harvesting of second- and third-growth forests; ban the export of raw logs and maximize resource use for local jobs; and ban the use of whole trees for wood pellet biofuel production, which is another thing that is happening in British Columbia and is not climate friendly at all.