| Summary: | One of the critical problems facing British Columbia's forest industry today is the limited access to a sufficient and continuous timber supply. The Small Business Program is a government program established and administered by the Ministry of Forests. The Program is an example of one way to deal with this supply problem. There are many factors that led to and affected the
development of the Program. John Kingdon's theory of agenda setting and alternative
specification processes provides a framework for examining the creation of government programs. The issue of a lack of adequate timber supply for small forestry operators emerged onto the provincial government's agenda during the 1970s, under the NDP government. In 1975, the NDP government established the Pearse Royal Commission on Forest Resources to undertake a
comprehensive study of government forest policies. The hearings and the Report of the Pearse Commission elevated public and political awareness about the plight of small operators, thus keeping the issue on the government's agenda. The Pearse Commission Report made recommendations on how to resolve the timber supply problem faced by small operators. The recommendations provided the conceptual framework for government to establish a Small
Business program The establishment of the Program was a result of the need by the Social Credit government to respond to the Pearse Royal Commission Report, and to demonstrate to its supporters, small operators, that it could be more helpful to small operators than the previous NDP government. The key participants in estabhshing the Small Business Program were the Forest Policy Advisory Committee of B.C., small operators and their associations, the Ministry of Forests and Tom Waterland, Minister of Forests. Each had different roles at different stages of the
establishment of the Program. === Arts, Faculty of === Political Science, Department of === Graduate
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