Estimate of direct local employment generated by logging on a specific tenure

Our summary for each forest tenure includes estimates of full-time equivalent jobs created by that tenure for each year since 2010.

At this time we are estimating the number of jobs each tenure generates based on BC Stats’ most recent account of direct employment in the “Logging, forestry and support activities” category of the forestry industry combined with Ministry of Forests’ information about the total volume logged on publicly owned and privately owned land.

For example, in 2020, BC Stats’ found that “Forestry and Logging with support activities” generated 17,200 direct jobs in BC.

In that year, the Ministry of Forests’ Harvest Billing System found that the total volume of logs taken from Crown and private land in BC amounted to 52.58 million cubic metres.

Dividing the total volume cut by the total number of direct jobs in forestry, logging with support activities, we calculate there were, on average, 0.33 jobs in this employment category per thousand cubic metres harvested.

We then apply that number to the volume each tenure holder cut in 2020, as recorded by that tenure’s Harvest Billing System reports.

For example, the Harvest Billing System reported that TimberWest harvested 17,480 cubic metres on Quadra Island in 2020. That volume, at 0.33 jobs per cubic metre, equates to 5.77 full-time jobs.

So, for our estimate of jobs provided by TimberWest’s forestry, logging with support activities on Quadra Island in 2020, we entered 5.77. 

We welcome documentary evidence from tenure holders that indicates a higher or lower level of employment than our estimates show.