File photo (image credit - CFJC Today)

By Michael Reeve

Forest Innovation Investment

‘It doesn’t get to the root issues’; Critic Stamer unsure if new forest policy official will be able to affect change

Aug 20, 2025 | 4:40 PM

KAMLOOPS — Earlier this week, the government announced Rick Doman was appointed as the new chair of the Forest Innovation Investment (FII) board.

The board is tasked with expanding opportunities for B.C. forestry products through wood innovation, diversifying markets and collaborating to support mass timber and value-added manufacturing. While Doman brings more than 40 years of industry experience, B.C. Forest Critic Ward Stamer is unsure if it will lead to tangible changes.

“I have all the confidence in someone like Rick Doman to be able to chair that,” highlighted Stamer. “But again, it doesn’t get to the root issues that we have right now in our forest industry. One of them is certainty of supply. We don’t have enough fibre for our manufacturing facilities and without that fibre, our secondary manufacturing — which is what this FII is really set up for — isn’t even going to have the products to sell in the first place.”

Likening it to the organizing of deck chairs on the Titanic, Stamer doesn’t believe Doman can be successful in this new role because he isn’t being given the tools from the province to succeed.

Looped In

LOOPED IN WITH NIKKI OMEN: December 4, 2025

Dec 04, 2025

SOUND OFF

SOUND OFF: 16 days of activism against gender-based violence

Dec 03, 2025

Question of the Week

Will the amount of money you spend on Christmas be more or less than last year?

Dec 01, 2025

“That means we have to have an increase in permitting. We need to be able to streamline the process. The government promised that would be done in January. We are still waiting. It’s actually slower than it was,” said Stamer. “I’m asking the forest minister, ‘What exactly is going on? What are you going to be able to do stop the carnage, to stops these mills from closing, stop these communities from shutting down?'”