A BC cabinet minister was in Vernon today, to announce an improvement in access to government services. Steve Thomson, Minister for Forest, Lands and Natural Resources,
helped open a Front-Counter BC office at the Forestry office at 2501
14th Ave. "This will provide a single point entry for clients of the natural
resource sector, so they'll be able to come in and get all their permit
and authorization needs dealt with directly through that one window, so
this makes it more efficient for them and saves time." Thomson says before people would have to go to several offices to get the required permits. The minister, MLA for Kelowna-Mission, says Vernon is a good site for
a Front Counter due to the wide range of resource activity here. "Agriculture, forestry, water, all of those kinds of parts of the
ministry are here, so this was seen as a centre that would benefit the
entire region." Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert is pleased the government is expanding the program to Vernon. "By bringing more government services to our families, the Province is supporting economic growth in our communities." Meanwhile, Thomson is optimistic about the logging/forest industry's future despite what he calls the fragile US market. "The growth of the market in China has provided real optimism over
the last few months. Our exports to China have exceeded those of the US,
so it's extremely positive diversifying the markets." Thomson says a new two year extension of the softwood lumber deal
with the US was announced over the weekend, which he says will provide
certainty until 2015. "I think what the industry will also tell you, while they're
optimistic and looking forward to the future, it's still fragile and we
still need to make sure we work very closely with them to make sure
we've have the right policy framework in place."Photo: Forests, Land and Natural Resources Minister Steve Thomson (left) opens the new Front Counter office in Vernon with Vernon Monashee MLA Eric Foster and Vernon Mayor Wayne Lippert (P.McIntyre)
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Quick Facts:
* FrontCounter BC offers more than 130 natural resource-related permits and authorizations at each location.
* FrontCounter BC provides services on behalf of 16 additional partner agencies.
* Since Jan. 1, 2005, over 38,000 authorizations have been processed.
* The FrontCounter BC call centre handles more than 21,400 inquiries annually.
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