Interior towns fighting for future out of forestry's downturn
Credit to Author: Derrick Penner| Date: Sun, 08 Dec 2019 21:39:27 +0000
There are hints of better news for a couple of 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, at least temporarily, 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).”
And rates for stumpage, the fees that forestry firms are charged for the rights to cut timber on Crown land have started to adjust downward, Kahlon added, which is another hopeful sign.
Stumpage rates are calculated using a complicated formula based on the market price for lumber and Kahlon said they fell 12 per cent on average in the province’s interior at their last reset and 24 per cent on the coast.
“So stumpage prices are coming down, obviously reflecting where markets are at,” Kahlon said.
Still, the province estimates 5,100 workers remain out of work or on reduced schedules across the province, according to the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
In total, 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 over the holiday.
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. Anecdotally, he is hearing that some of the loggers and contractors that serviced the mill are “on the last string of their finances.”
“I really expect come January, February, it’s going to start looking really ugly here,” Blackwell said.
However, Blackwell added that there are some positive signs.
Blackwell said Simpcw Resources Group, which is a Secwepemc First Nation company and now the North Thompson’s largest employer, has been hiring related to construction contracts that it has secured on the recently restarted Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project.
And recently, the district was asked to submit a letter in support of a possible sale of Canfor’s sawmill site in nearby Vavenby to an investor interested in commercial redevelopment of the property, provided a transfer of Canfor’s tenures for timber rights to Interfor is approved.
Canfor spokeswoman Michelle Ward confirmed that Canfor is working to finalize the sale of its Vavenby site and said the company would provide an update once the sale is complete, but offered few details now.
“We believe the sale of the site provides the best opportunity for future economic activities and employment to be developed,” Ward said in an emailed statement.
Forest Minister Doug Donaldson is in the process of reviewing the transfer of Canfor’s tenures to Interfor related to the Vavenby mill, according to a statement from a ministry spokesperson.
Recent provincial legislation requires such transfers of timber rights receive ministerial approval to ensure they are in the public interest, but Blackwell said they are hoping that happens soon.
The proposals for redevelopment could involve employment equivalent to one third of the jobs lost in the mill closure.
“(But) we need the tenure transfer to happen for what’s left of our 50-cents-on-the-dollar forestry we’re going to have here,” Blackwell said.