An article by Ben Parfitt was published in Policy Note, a blog by the BC Office of the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA). Parfitt reports that while the BC Government is promising protection of ancient forests, senior bureaucrats are instead protecting low-value scrub and permitting logging of high-value old-growth trees. While British Columbia has the Freedom of Information and Protection of Privacy Act, we need an Accuracy of Information Act. There should be sanctions when Ministers and Ministries make promises to the public while they work in secret to achieve the opposite.

I began to distrust the province’s wildfire statistics after noticing the reported size of the Donnie Creek fire — the province’s largest ever — was not altered from mid-July to mid-September. Yet throughout this time, BC Wildfire Service stated that Donnie Creek was out of control. Now at the end of September, the fire is still uncontrolled and the government agency said it may burn until winter. Today, my distrust seems proven. On September 29, BC Wildfire Service added 533,409 hectares (5,334 square kilometres) to the total area burned in the province. That is 93 percent of the amount reported in the preceding four weeks and almost one-fifth of the total for 2023…