Monthly Archives: December 2019

The provincial government is providing $875,000 to 11 Interior communities to help with delivery of transition services and supports to B.C. mill workers and their families who have been affected by permanent or indefinite mill closures or shift reductions. …Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests said, “funds from these community support grants are going directly to the local governments, as they have first-hand knowledge of what supports are most needed in their communities.” Through the Community Support Grants Program (CSGP), Interior communities with permanent mill closures are eligible for $100,000; communities with indefinite mill closures are eligible for $75,000; and communities with permanent shift reductions are eligible for $50,000. …The following communities are receiving community support grants:

• Clinton, Clearwater, Quesnel and Kelowna are each receiving $100,000;
• Fort St. James, Fort St. John, Mackenzie, 100 Mile House and Regional District of East Kootenay Area B (Jaffray) are each receiving $75,000;
• Regional District of Fraser Fort George Area C (Isle Pierre) and Merritt are each receiving $50,000.

Kelowna is getting $100,000 from the province to help deliver supports to Tolko workers and their families who have been affected by the mill closure. “The challenges facing Interior forest communities are unprecedented, and that’s why we are getting these resources where they are most urgently needed,” Doug Donaldson, minister of forests said, in a press release. “Funds from these community support grants are going directly to the local governments, as they have first-hand knowledge of what supports are most needed in their communities.” Support services and programs could include employment workshops and training, counselling services and support for food banks.

After weeks of urgent pleas that the forest-based economy of northern Vancouver Island and the B.C. coast is suffering irreparable damage, the B.C. government has delayed some of the changes that logging companies say have made timber harvesting too expensive. Changes include easing new fees on unrecovered wood waste, and delaying a new fee system for exported logs. …Teal Jones Group… shut down in September, cutting off wood supply to two sawmills and a cedar shake mill in Surrey that employ 500 people. …Mosaic Forest Management laid off about 2,000 employees as well as coastal logging contractors at the end of November…due to what the company termed “very challenging pricing and market conditions.” …Provincial stumpage fees for cutting coastal Crown land timber are being reduced to $8.82 per cubic metre as of Jan. 1, in the latest quarterly adjustment to reflect the falling price of lumber. Stumpage reached a high of $18.73 in January 2019.

B.C.’s Forests Minister says a decision on the proposed $60-million sale of timber cutting rights from Canfor to Interfor could come early in the New Year. Under Bill 22, Doug Donaldson has the ability to approve or reject the sale, and he says there’s been a lot of feedback from the affected communities. “We already had an example of how that repositions the government as the land manager in the deal between Conifex and Hampton in Fort St. James…” he said. “So I made that a condition of that sale, that a new mill must be built within 36 months in that community. So that’s the kind of the thing that Bill 22 allows us to do.” Doug Donaldson, says he hasn’t seen the final proposal just yet, but adds if the deal does go ahead, he’s not ruling out issuing conditions. “Every situation is different.”

Brian Horejsi

…If central B.C. MP Dan Albas wanted to do something for the forest Industry – not withstanding what he should actually be doing, which is stepping up for the citizens of B.C. and their long standing fears and observations that B.C. forests are badly managed, critically over exploited, and very poorly protected – he would demand that B.C. Ministry of Forests, Land and Resource Operations produce a detailed annual report. That report should set out for B.C. public lands shareholders – citizens – how B.C. ‘manages’ forests, who gets preferential use of our forests, and what these corporations or license/permit holders pay to taxpayers for exploiting public land, forests and ecosystems. Imagine if you put your money in the bank and never… saw a statement or knew what was happening to your investment or savings, except that you saw some big corporations and CEO’s consistently walking out of your bank with a big smile on their face! That’s B.C. forest management!

The B.C. government is taking a more active role to find a resolution to the ongoing forestry strike on Vancouver Island, with the minister of Labour requesting that mediators report directly back to him. …”I have asked mediators Vince Ready and Amanda Rogers to call you both back to mediation as soon as possible over the holiday season and to stay at the table for as long as it takes to get an agreement,” Minister Harry Bains wrote in the letter. …Don Demens, CEO of Western Forest Products, says he agrees the strike has gone on for too long but has some questions about the extent of the government’s involvement in mediations. …”We are seeking clarity from the minister with respect to the specific mandate and instructions he has provided to the mediators.”

…Negotiations between the company and the union collapsed this week and no future mediation dates are scheduled. As the holidays approach, forest industry workers like logging truck driver Joe Strachan are growing increasingly frustrated with their employer, while wondering how they will keep the lights on at home.  …The strike shack has operated as an ad-hoc food bank for months and Strachan, a 35-year forestry veteran, said he is seeing young families going through divorces as their relationships suffer as the industry does too. “WFP has become an operation that just wants to harvest timber and they don’t want any employees,” said Strachan. CBC invited Western Forest Products to participate in the special broadcast of On The Island, but the company did not have anyone available. …Campbell River residents Tamara Meggitt and Rona Doucette started the Loonies for Loggers campaign, organizing food drives to support people on the picket lines and their families.

Tom Fletcher and John Horgan

Black Press legislature reporter Tom Fletcher sat down with Premier John Horgan to discuss the B.C. government’s 2019 record and his expectations for the coming year. TF: Let’s start with the forest industry. On Vancouver Island, no one expected the Western Forest Products strike to go six months. It’s a private sector labour dispute and it’s not the government’s job to fix those, correct? JH: That’s my view. But it’s also the government’s responsibility to make sure that the unintended consequences, those innocent victims of the labour dispute, whether they be contractors or small businesses in communities like Port Alberni, Port Hardy, Campbell River are not adversely affected. … TF: Contractors are not getting strike pay, they’re mostly not in unions. They’re the ones who are getting their trucks repossessed, right? JH: That’s right, and it’s the contractors I’m thinking about primarily. They can’t work, but they can’t collect EI, they can’t find other ways to move forward.

Doug Donaldson

The province isn’t going to wade into the labour impasse that’s keeping 3,000 workers in the forestry sector off the job. Negotiations stalled between the United Steelworkers union and Western Forest Products earlier in the week, meaning the strike could hit the six-month mark. B.C. forests minister, Doug Donaldson, said the province wants bargaining to take its course: “Our approach is that this is a labour dispute between a private company and a private union, and those disputes are best settled through collective bargaining.” However, he said the province is strongly urging both sides to make a deal. “I made a commitment that I would get in touch with Labour Minister (Harry) Bains. He had met with senior members of the United Steelworkers yesterday afternoon and he had met with the CEO and senior managers of Western Forest Products the day before.” …Meanwhile, he said the forest sector “needs changes.”