IS TOUGH TALK EFFECTIVE?
Premier takes hard line in conference call with forest industry to help B.C. community
The community of Mackenzie rallied last week to protest job losses from the disruption of operations in the town’s three major employers in the forest industry.
The Canfor sawmill has been idled since this time last year with the loss of more than 200 jobs. The Conifex sawmill resumed operations just this week after a three-month shutdown affecting 160 workers.
The Paper Excellence Canada pulp mill is in the midst of a curtailment that will put another 250 employees out of work indefinitely by early next month.
The protest “was about making some noise,” Chris Dixon, president of Unifor Local 1092 told the Prince George Citizen. “And I hope we are heard.”
Mackenzie’s troubles have not gone unnoticed by Premier John Horgan. But so far, his B.C. government hasn’t determined much in the way of relief.
“We put in place a timber supply table in Mackenzie to bring all of the players — Indigenous, community, labour, industry — together to work these issues through,” Horgan said Thursday. “We haven’t found success yet.”
The premier is looking to the major players in the forest industry to help rescue Mackenzie: “They all have a responsibility to make sure that the forest work that they do benefits not just their shareholders, but benefits the communities where they operate.”
Horgan made a similar emphasis during a June conference call with industry leaders, a few days after Paper Excellence announced it was curtailing operations in Mackenzie.
On one side of the exchange was the board of directors of the Council of Forest Industries (COFI), representing most of the major players in B.C.
At the other end were Forests Minister Doug Donaldson and parliamentary secretary Ravi Kahlon, along with the premier, who did most of the talking.
Horgan talked tough, according to sources on the industry side. He demanded the companies get on board with his goal of generating more jobs and more value-added production from the reduced supply of timber in the post-beetle kill era.
When I asked the premier about the call Thursday, he confirmed that he took a hard line with the industry.
“I reminded the forest companies that, by and large, the forests that they work in are not theirs,” he told me.
“They’re public forests. They have tenure arrangements, contracts with the people of B.C. to harvest that wood. Those contracts, historically, have meant that there’d be a benefit to communities.”
Over the past 1½ years, mills in Mackenzie and other communities have reduced operations or shut down altogether, blaming depressed markets, shortages of wood and high production costs in B.C.
Horgan says companies need to take a longer view and focus more on the public interest as represented in forest industry-dependent communities.
“I very much value their historic contribution to the economy and the well-being of B.C.ers. They have an obligation to the future, as well. Together, we can get there. Separately, we can’t.”
As for the tough talk, the premier believes there is a time and a place for it.
“I have a good working relationship with COFI,” Horgan maintained. “But if we can’t speak candidly to each other about challenging times, then we’re just dancing around the maypole.
“I didn’t seek public office to pacify people, I sought public office to make positive change in peoples’ lives. I know that we can do that if we all acknowledge that the only way that we can benefit from the bounty in B.C. is if we have investment.”
I’m not sure the relationship with COFI is as good as he says. More likely industry leaders avoided speaking up because the government, as landlord and regulator, has so many ways of striking back.
The more telling response came the day after the conference call, when Canfor announced the purchase of three sawmills in Sweden via its Vida Group subsidiary.
The $43-million purchase means Sweden now represents 22 per cent of Canfor production capacity along with 31 per cent in the southern U.S. Less than half (43 per cent) remains in B.C. with the balance in Alberta.
Horgan was asked if that was perhaps a comment on how Canfor views B.C. as a place to invest?
“That’s a simplistic response to a complex issue,” he replied, citing the continuing lumber battle with the U.S., the shortage of fibre in the wake of the beetle kill and other factors.
“I have a very good working relationship with the leadership at Canfor,” he went on to insist. (I wonder if it extends to former NDP premier Glen Clark, who now sits on the Canfor board, representing the Jim Pattison Group, where he is president.)
But in any event, said Horgan: “Canfor will make business decisions in the interests of their shareholders. They have made significant investments in the U.S., in Sweden and in other parts of the world. That is absolutely their right.
“But if they’re wanting to access public timber in B.C., they need to ensure that they’re meeting the requirements of participation in our economy here.”
Or continue to go elsewhere, presumably.
Increased investment in B.C. is the key to Horgan’s goal of getting more employment, productivity and value out of the province’s dwindling supply of wood.
But it remains to be seen whether the premier’s tough talk will persuade the major players to invest the necessary hundreds of millions here in B.C. — or to take their dollars elsewhere.