Towns fight for their future amid forestry downturn
There are hints of better news for communities mired in the downturn of B.C.’s forestry sector that have allowed one mill to recall workers and another town to see a future beyond a mill closure.
Aspen Planers in Merritt was able to secure enough new timber to add a second shift to its operations creating work for 50 people, primarily those who were laid off when the company cut a shift last May.
“It was nice to hear they’re going back to work,” said Merritt Mayor Linda Brown.
“At least, even in the short term, just before Christmas, there are 50 more employees in town having paycheques. It was a good thing.”
The timber came from clearing work that is part of a forest fire mitigation program, said Ravi Kahlon, the MLA for Delta North and parliamentary secretary for Forest Minister Doug Donaldson.
“I would love to find a solution like this for every community,” Kahlon said. “Unfortunately it is not available for every community, but we were fortunate to support (Aspen Planers).”
Rates for stumpage, the fees that forestry firms are charged for the rights to cut timber on Crown land have started to adjust downward, he added, which is another hopeful sign.
The province figures 5,100 workers remain out of work or on reduced schedules, according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development. Five sawmills have closed permanently, another four are on indefinite hiatus and as of Nov. 29, nine more were on curtailment.
And while Aspen Planers has been able to restore a shift heading into Christmas, Canfor Corp. and Tolko Industries are preparing to close up shop at 15 mills between them.
In Clearwater, central to the Thompson Valley hit with the permanent closure of Canfor’s Vavenby sawmill, Mayor Merlin Blackwell said the local food bank was reporting a 30 per cent increase in demand, in part due to the job losses.
And Blackwell doesn’t think the community has seen the worst of it.
“I really expect come January, February, it’s going to start looking really ugly here,” Blackwell said. But he said there are some positive signs.
He said Simpcw Resources Group, a Secwepemc First Nation company and now the North Thompson’s largest employer, has been hiring related to the recently restarted Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
And the district was asked to support a possible sale of Canfor’s sawmill site in Vavenby to an investor interested in commercial redevelopment of the property, if a transfer of Canfor’s tenures for timber rights to Interfor is approved.