FORED volunteers attended SCOPE, the Vancouver School Board Sustainability Fair, at Eric Hamber Secondary in April. The event empowers youth with the skills and networks for learning and positive change. FORED showcased non-partisan educational resources that offer youth skills in communications, research, volunteering and more. One FORED volunteer, who is on the autism spectrum, said the event boosted his confidence in public communications. 😊

Majority support oil and gas

A recent Leger poll found that 72 per cent of Canadians support Canada producing and exporting more oil & gas so other countries are less dependent on Russia for energy needs.
Just 13 per cent of respondents opposed increasing oil & gas production and exports.

Resource workers well paid

Workers in the forestry, fishing, mining, oil and gas industries earned $41.83 an hour on average in 2021 — second only to utility industry workers, who made $45.99 on average, per Statistics Canada. That exceeds the $30.03 average employee hourly wage in all industries. See more.

• Canada's Indigenous economy, now worth $30 billion a year, is expected to more than triple to $100 billion by 2025, according to the Indigenous Partnerships Success Showcase, which describes itself as "an annual event responding to the growing demand for practical guidance on how First Nations, Métis and Inuit communities and their enterprise partners can work together, in common purpose, for shared success."

   

• The Indigenous Resource Network reports that Indigenous management of forestry has increased 135 per cent since 2003.

   

• One in 11 direct jobs in the B.C. forest industry is held by an Indigenous person, according to Western Economic Diversification Canada. Some 5,315 Indigenous workers were employed in the B.C. forest industry, a level of Indigenous employment that is higher than in other resource industries.

DID YOU KNOW?

• Less than a third of one per cent of B.C.
  old-growth forests is logged each year.

   

• Only 42 per cent of the province's publicly owned forests are available for logging, says the B.C. government.

   

• 58 per cent of B.C. forests — at 86 million acres nearly the size of California (which is 100 million acres) — has been preserved.

FORED needs your help

Like all charities, FORED relies on donations from individuals, organizations or companies who support our important work helping to educate youth about B.C.'s resource industries while preserving the environment, as well as the increasing role of First Nations in sharing B.C.'s natural wealth. A little goes a long way.