Daily Archives: October 26, 2018

Canfor’s Prince George Sawmill and chip plant were targeted Thursday as the union representing Northern B.C.’s sawmill workers continued a campaign of rotating strikes. The move came the same day Canfor said their earnings for the third-quarter doubled from the year before despite lower lumber prices. The company’s net profit stood at $125.3 million for the quarter, raising the year-to-date total to $407.3 million. On Monday, West Fraser said its earnings for the quarter were $238 million, pushing its year-to-date total to $781 million. However, both figures are down from the previous quarter, when Canfor took in $169.8 million and West Fraser $346 million. As of Monday, the price of top-quality two-by-fours at the Prince George Inland Container Terminal stood at US$356 per thousand board feet, down from US$446 at the same point last year, according to Madison’s Lumber Reporter.

Mill workers in Prince George are striking today, with sawmill and chip plant employees unionized through United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 on the picket line. The move is part of USW Local 1-2017’s rotating strikes, which began mid-month, with Tolko Lakeview in Williams Lake taking job action on Oct. 17. Union president Brian O’Rourke was at meetings in Kelowna earlier this month, sitting in on negotiations between the Interior Forest Labour Relations Association (IFLRA) and Locals 1-417, 1-423 and 1-403, all of which represent forestry workers in B.C.’s Interior. The purpose was to attempt to conclude an agreement, in order to set a pattern for the rest of the unions in negotiation. Bargaining for USW 1-2017 with the Council of Northern Interior Forest Industry Relations (CONIFER) broke down in August.

Susan Mowbray

The Island’s economy is expected to keep growing, but at a moderate rate. The State of the Island Economic Report for 2018 was presented at the Vancouver Island Economic Summit in Nanaimo. The fourth annual report was prepared by MNP for the Vancouver Island Economic Alliance…There are some challenges in forestry, MNP’s Susan Mowbray noted, pointing to timber supply shortages and job losses. There’s also been a decline in commodity-grade lumber prices this fall, she said, and if that trend continues, producers will have a harder time absorbing U.S. duties. “So far demand has remained high and has kept prices up, so producers have been able to pass those duties on to their customers and there hasn’t been a huge impact on production…” she said. “Forestry is going to continue to be really important to the Vancouver Island economy… but it’s going to be smaller.”

PRINCE GEORGE – Yesterday, Fortis BC released the bad news. The replacement for the natural gas pipeline will likely be re-built in November, but both pipelines will only carry a limited supply. The day after the explosion, Canfor began trucking natural gas to two of the three pulp mills in town. The company says it now has been given “a set amount of natural gas, which we are allocating amongst our three Prince George pulp mills.” In addition to the allocation from Fortis, Canfor is supplementing our natural gas needs with trucked gas. With this allotment and the current temperatures, Canfor is able to keep the mills up and running. [END]

It’s no secret British Columbians have little faith in the province’s system of ‘professional reliance’ — an arrangement that essentially outsources government’s responsibility to  enforce environmental regulations to industry. ….Now the province is taking steps to regain control of environmental monitoring with a bill introduced in the B.C. legislature Monday. But already critics have come forward to say the new rules only superficially deal with B.C.’s broken system. …In June, environmental lawyer Mark Haddock released a report which set out 121 recommendations to pull environmental monitoring back on track. The legislation… oversight to five professional bodies… and the Association of B.C. Forest Professionals….Haddock was especially critical of the failure of professional reliance in management of B.C.’s forests. “Given the breadth of professional expertise required for forest management, government should consider whether the current laissez faire approach to the use of professionals is adequate,” he said.