The long road to recovery for island towns and residents now that the forestry strike is over
Credit to Author: Lori Culbert| Date: Mon, 17 Feb 2020 18:12:31 +0000
PORT MCNEILL — Forestry workers are expected to take over the front lawn of the B.C. legislature Tuesday — the day the budget is to be released — as part of a rally to advocate for the future of an industry that has been rocked by a long strike and continues to face uncertainty.
“We are expecting a minimum of 5,000 people there. We have a convoy of trucks heading down,” said Tamara Meggitt, whose husband is a logger from Courtenay.
“It’s all about saving the working forest. Towns like Port McNeill and Gold River, they are forestry dependent. Without that, all these small communities and their way of life disappears.”
Protesters will also deliver a petition to the government that demands forestry jobs be protected by ensuring harvesting will be not be curtailed in the future.
“There are large portions of the land base set aside for social and cultural interests and environmental reasons. The forests of B.C. are a renewable resource and we ask that the remaining harvestable land base be protected as ‘the working forest,’ to be defined and dedicated to the purpose of harvesting and economic activities for the sustainable future of our families, our communities and the province,” reads the petition, which was started by the B.C. Forestry Alliance.
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom said last week that the petition had at least 4,000 signatures from coastal towns up and down the island.
The rally and delivery of the petition come just days after Western Forest Products and the United Steelworkers Union ended a bitter, eight-month strike with 3,000 unionized members voting 81.9 per cent in favour late last week to accept a deal hammered out with the help of two government-appointed mediators.
The strike left thousands of families and businesses on northern Vancouver Island in financial hardship, which spread beyond the striking workers to include companies that contract to the forestry industry and local stores where residents could no longer afford to shop. A one-industry town like Port McNeill saw layoffs at local businesses, vehicle repossessions and an increasing number of residents relying on food banks to feed their families.
“The end of this strike doesn’t end advocacy and fighting for the forestry industry for us. There are so many things on the horizon,” Wickstrom said. “Our work has just begun.”
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom.
Wickstrom is concerned about an “old growth strategic review” being conducted right now by the provincial government that is examining “the ecological, economic and cultural importance of old-growth trees and forests.” The mayor worries the review could result in a reduction in logging, which she personally does not believe is necessary to protect the forests and which she fears will mean another round of economic devastation for the North Island.
“This strike has given us a glimpse of what life might look like with a reduction in forestry jobs,” she said. “What is the balance between protecting the environment and the socio-economic value of a community like ours?”
Macrina Richards has run Tia’s Café in Port McNeill for eight years, but in recent months has laid off eight of her 10 staff because no one could afford to eat out during the strike. She also cut her hours and changed her business operation from a restaurant, which has higher overhead, to a lower-margin coffee shop.
Still, she hasn’t been able to pay herself a salary for the three months and she has also been accumulating debt. She is behind on her payroll deductions, her GST payments, servicing her line of credit, and her Hydro and Telus bills.
“I am in the hole for the last six months,” Richards said. “People from Vancouver don’t realize that small towns are run by small businesses. There is no Starbucks here. It’s all on me.”
She is grateful the strike has been settled, but worries how long it will take to get back on solid financial ground. “I know it will get better but it is going to take time,” Richards said.
Across the road from Tia’s is Community Futures, a federal economic development program that supports small, rural businesses. General manager David Mitchell is launching a new program that is offering low-interest loans — short-term financing of up to $100,00 — to cover startup costs for small companies when the forestry sector returns to work.
David Mitchell (right) is manager of the Community Futures office in Port McNeill, and Lawrie Garrett is the business analyst.
“When the industry does get back to work, how many long-term, valuable contractors or businesses will not be here to respond? They may have no cash to get started again or may have been forced to close their business,” Mitchell says in promotional material for the new loans.
He said the target of these loans will likely be subcontractors to major timber licensees, providing services such as falling, hauling, and mechanics.
“We’ve been talking to some of these contractors. It’s scary how much some of them have lost in terms of their corporate savings,” Mitchell said. “These contractors were trying to maintain their people, their staff, and it has cost them to do that.”
When everyone is back to work will depend on various factors, such as when bush-access roads are ready, and equipment — some of which has been abandoned in the forest all winter — is serviced. Some companies will need to get their workers back, or hire new staff if former employees found jobs elsewhere during the strike. It could still be another month before these contractors get paid.
Many of them have, by now, “emptied their corporate piggy banks,” so these loans are intended to bridge that gap, said Lawrie Garrett, a business analyst at Community Futures.
Wickstrom said the strike has reinforced the need for her town to diversify. “The strike has shown us we have to go from resource dependent to resource based,” the mayor said.
Loonies for Loggers co-founders Tamara Meggitt (left) and Rona Doucette with two students who helped distribute groceries from the horse trailer that was turned into a mobile food bank for northern Vancouver Island communities.
Meggitt, who is a co-founder of the Loonies for Loggers mobile food bank that has helped 23 island communities during the strike, said buses of protesters will be heading to Victoria on Tuesday from towns such as Port Alberni and Campbell River, along with many logging trucks and the horse trailer she has used to haul groceries around the island.
“If we don’t protect logging jobs, our temporary food bank will become permanent,” she said.
Twitter: @loriculbert
The North Vancouver Island town of Port McNeill. Credit: Elysian Brady/Town of Port McNeill