Rustad Agreement Calls for Site to Become Training Centre
Friday, December 9, 2011 @ 4:25 AM
Prince George, B.C. – The Rustad Sawmill site in Prince George will be considered officially closed in late January, but that does not mean the site will be idle.
According to the closure agreement between the United Steelworkers local 1-424 and Canfor, the company plans to “offer the Rustad Division site to the Provincial Government for use as the ‘Rustad Wood Products Manufacturing Training Centre’ (or some other such name) on terms to be negotiated between Canfor and the Provincial Government.” (click here to see the full document) .
Minister of Jobs Tourism and Innovation, Pat Bell, says there are discussions underway that would see the former sawmill turned into a trades training centre. "We are working both with Canfor and another proponent." says Bell. One of thekey initiastives we beleive going forward is trades training. Having sufficient adequately trained trades people through the various apprenticeship programs to fill all the positions, whether they be in foresty, mining, natural gas, a lot of those skills are interchangeable. So Canfor has come forward and suggested they have an interest in trying to move rades training foraward and that this site might be a suitable site to do some work on."
Bell says there is still work to be done, and full details won’t likely be coming until some time in the first quarter of 2012, but it is a project that would be a public-private venture "It does present an exciting opportunity in my view. It’s the kind of facility that could be helpful in terms of the long term scope of trades training in B.C."
Comments
Seeing as all our logs are going to China; does that mean the Chinese will be coming to Rustads to learn how to make lumber out of our trees?
Will the union employees still have rights to jobs there for 2 years after the official shut? I remember when Woolco & Extra Foods closed, the sites sat empty for a long time because the union employees still had hiring rights for 2 years. Would this be the same for this? Just asking.
mythoughts, I think with the site no longer being a site to produce lumber products, I would believe it does not have to be a union site.
Woolco and Extra Foods was basically still trying to do the same thing with a different label outside, thus it is not with in the labor laws.
Guess its still a Union site,but who knows what this deal will look like. Interesting concept turning it into a training center people will have real hands on experence in all areas of saw mill operations.Better than just removing it all together,have to watch what happens next
This is a perfect location to have their ‘Wood Inovation Center’ Save the city and province $millions…plus lots of parking. Unfortunately the art students and poets that run these things wouldn’t feel very comfortable having to go to the BCR site to work…might have to rub shoulders with blue collars and the real inovators in this city…
How do you undertake trades training when none of the equipment is in operation? Canfor has other industrial sites with lots of opportunity to do apprentice training and they don’t really get behind it. Is this another hidden subsidy for the industry??
I think that “little jimmy” will probably
somehow add to his $ billions with tax payer funded dollars.
I think that Jim13135 has a good point. Maybe by turning this site over to the Government, Canfor, can get around cleaning up the site. Im sure that they have an obligation to the Province to ensure the site is enviormentally ok.
In any event we will have to wait and see what happens.
Shouldn’t part of that multi million dollar stimulus package have been that these companies actually have apprenticeship programs?? Does anyone know how many active apprentices Canfor has in it’s pulpmills right now??
great way for canfor to get out of any environmental cleanup or site remediation…
At PGP&P and Intercon they have 1 [one] apprentice.
The rustad site has existed for a very long time. Since the days when oil changes were done where ever & oil drained on the ground. The enviro. cleanup on a area that size would be huge. Also the equipment is mostly out dated & not the best to be training on. If Canfor was interested in training apprentices they have ample opportunities in thier present operations. I NEVER trust thier MOTIVES.
I am not sure if the Rustands site is on BCRail property however I believe that there are no remediation requirements for any railyards. Part of an archaic agreement that the railroads were able to extract possibly over 1oo years ago before anyone invented the terms remediation or toxic.
Thats going to be a nice big problem for our great grandchildren!
I worked for Canfor and I know this is just a way to get out of the cost of the site clean up! It would be a good bet that Jimmy also has a part in this some how.
The Rustad property was originally leased from BC Rail. BC Rail lease arrangements require companies to bring the property back to what it was at the time of the lease, when they cancel. In the case of Rustads this would be a huge cost.
I think that one of the reasons they kept the mill operating as long as they did was because of the clean up costs. In any event once BC Rail was sold many companies bought the property they were leasing. I beleive that Canfor also bought the Rustad property from BC Rail Properties, if not then how could they turn it over to the Government.
So the Government (taxpayers) could be on the hook for this property in the years ahead. This must be the **positive** part of the transaction that Bell was talking about.
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