The British Columbia government will appoint a roundtable to review government forestry regulations in an effort to buoy the ailing industry, Premier Gordon Campbell told the annual Truck Loggers Association.

In a speech emphasizing that government alone can't solve the problems, Campbell said the government will work with industry, communities, unions and others to find ways to help B.C.'s bedrock industry survive.

B.C. isn't immune to the problems facing forest industry everywhere, he said.

"What I'm talking about today is that we don't want to put ourselves in a position where that is always the case," he told reporters.

Campbell said B.C. needs to expand its markets and welcomed the possibility of free-trade agreements with Korea, India, the European Union and Japan. That would mitigate some of the challenges due to the downturn in the U.S. housing industry and the economy, he said.

"But Canada is going to feel the impacts of a downturn in the U.S.," Campbell said.

The roundtable announcement comes on the heels of more B.C. mill closures and the province's chief forester wondering out loud whether B.C.'s Crown timber lands should be privatized.

Campbell said he can't tell forestry companies what to do.

"I know that everyone would like the government to do that for them. Frankly, the challenge is too big for the government just to step in and fix," he told reporters.

He said British Columbians must stop thinking of forests as "simply a commodity."

The roundtable will address challenges such as global warming, the pine beetle epidemic and increasing economic pressures like the high Canadian dollar, he said.

The industry is in major struggle not only in B.C. but also across the nation. Ottawa announced earlier this month a $1-billion fund to help struggling Canadian communities and unemployed workers in industries such as forestry, fishing and manufacturing. The new fund is primarily for job retraining for laid-off workers and community infrastructure projects.

B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman said 2008 is expected to be a difficult year for forestry.

"If there was something government could do to change the situation with the markets, we would. However, we know we just can't," Coleman told a radio station.

Canfor Corp., Canada's biggest lumber producer, announced last week it is closing two mills in Fort Nelson, putting 435 people out of work. Those cuts follow similar streamlining by other major forestry companies.

Coleman will chair the roundtable, which will include other ministers and MLAs, as well as representatives from the forest industry, First Nations, academia, labour and environmental groups.

Once the roundtable is set up in a few weeks, Campbell said plans are to hold meetings across B.C. The group will undertake an exhaustive review of all facets of the forest industry and report quarterly to cabinet on possible improvements, he said.

Campbell also announced a full regulatory review of the Ministry of Forests and Range, conducted over 90 days at a cost of $1 million, aimed at streamlining its operations, cutting red tape and reducing the cost of regulation to industry.

The government will also work with industry and labour representatives to develop new opportunities for older forestry workers who may want to retire and tuition-fee assistance for training those temporarily laid off.

Those programs will be funded through the federal government's recently announced $1-billion Community Development Trust. British Columbia is slated to receive about $129 million from the fund.

NDP forest critic Bob Simpson, who attended the speech, said Campbell doesn't appreciate the "day-to-day crisis."

"The premier stands up there and has the audacity to say we're going to put a roundtable together, but in a couple of weeks I'll tell you what the membership is and terms of reference," said Simpson.

"We should have had specifics today instead of generalities and rhetoric that we got. While mills close and property values decline ... the premier talked nothing about a retention strategy for forestry workers."

Don Bendickson, president of the truck loggers group, said the roundtable initiative was a "start in the right direction."

"We have been pushing for some action, there's no doubt about it. The industry is really struggling."