Mayor of Burns Lake Says Secure Timber Supply Key to Return of Mill
Tuesday, January 24, 2012 @ 1:51 PM
Burns Lake, B.C. – The Mayor of Burns Lake, Luke Strimbold, says he has spoken with the Premier, Christy Clark, and the provincial Government is “doing everything it can” to help his community.
Strimbold says the Premier has asked the Minister of Forests to “Speed the process up on the matter of timber supply.”
Hampton Affiliates, owners of the Babine Forest Products sawmill which exploded and burned to the ground Friday night, killing two workers and injuring 19 others, says it will be some time before a decision is made on possibly rebuilding the mill. That decision could be a year to 18 months down the road.
Strimbold says he is hopeful the Provincial and Federal Governments will come through with some transitional funding, to get the community through that crucial period. He says they will look for ways to put people back to work on things like local infrastructure upgrades, reclamation on the mill site, “We need to keep those professional mill rights and workers in our community for when the mill gets rebuilt.”
In order to see that the mill returns, Mayor Strimbold says there will need to be a major effort to ensure there is a timber supply whether it be through community forest or First Nations licences ”For any company that is going to come in and invest, or reinvest, we need to make sure that timber is there.”
He says that is why the members of a panel at the community meeting last night in Burns Lake, came up with a commitment to a task force which will advocate for the community.
Hampton Affiliates has provided a further week of pay to the workers, and Employment Services Canada has been on scene all day today to accept the applications for Employment Insurance.
Comments
Why is the mayor worried about the timber supply? I’m sure the mill had a timber quota as well as the community forest.
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