Tight Timeframe To Nail Down Answers For Babine Re-Build
Prince George, BC – The MLA for Nechako Lakes says stakeholders are "working to a very tight clock" to determine whether a re-build of the Babine Forest Products sawmill is feasible.
In the aftermath of January’s deadly explosion and fire that completely razed the mill, the provincial government appointed former ‘Beetle Boss’, Bob Clark, and deputy minister, Ray Schultz, to lead the charge in determining whether there’s enough fiber supply to convince Portland-based, Hampton Affiliates to commit to rebuilding the sawmill.
"This isn’t about reallocating fiber from somebody else, this is going to be about how to grow the pie, to make the fiber basket larger in order to be able to meet the midterm fiber supply needs to justify a $100-million dollar replacement mill," says John Rustad.
Rustad met with about 40 former mill employees in Burns Lake yesterday to provide a status update. He says there are probably a dozen different options being looked at to ‘grow’ that supply. "No one will ultimately solve the puzzle, but a number of them might get us close."
Rustad admits work on solving the midterm shortage in the aftermath of the Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic has been going on for the past three or four years and the ‘solutions’ for Hampton should, ultimately, help other area mills, as well. "We’re using all that work we’ve done in the past, which is giving us the ability to move quite quickly in terms of accelerating those options," he says. "The challenge we’re going to have is we may not be able to do as much of the community and stakeholder consultation as we’d like to in order to try and fit our short timeframe."
One obvious option being looked at, he says, is to free up constraints on the land base. Rustad says in the Lakes District alone, it probably wouldn’t be enough, but if the whole corridor from Smithers to Prince George and south were looked at it may be part of solving the puzzle. The MLA says it’s something mayors along Highway 16 have been calling for over the past several years, but says it’s not without controversy.
Rustad says the government is hoping to have an ‘answer’ for Hampton by the end of March. "It may take us a little bit longer, but we’re really trying to drive this because there’s a short construction window," he says. "They need to be able to make a decision as to whether they’re going to rebuild or not and, if they do, we want to get the shovels in the ground as quickly as possible."
Comments
In addition to fibre supply, the Insurance Co., will be a big player in whether the mill is rebuilt or not. Hampton would get signficantly less in insurance if they did not rebuild, however there is no point in building a $100 Million dollar mill if you have no fibre.
My guess is that they will not build. Perhaps someone will build a smaller mill in the area, or they will increase the production of the mill at Decker Lake.
As for Mayors along Highway 16?? I guess that would be Smithers, Houston, Vanderhoof, Pr George, and Mcbride. I suspect they would want the fibre for themselves.
And here I thought OBAC was working on that with the communities impacted. Silly me!!!!!
So, is it possible to find out how many more months or years the mill had left with the current AAC allocated to it. That would be a start of disclosure with the public.
On top of that, how about the other mills along the corridor, how muych do they have left? Don’t we have to grow the base for everyone?
Why do we have to play guessing games? Why is this information not readily available to the public whose landbase this is?
What is the big secret?
The Chief Forester puts out an AAC, but no one follows up with where that cut can actually take place and whose licenses are in those cuts.
I am hoping that we will not hear that this is proprietary information because it really ought not to be.
Point me to a map of BC where I can get full knowledge of what is happening rather than a tidbit here and a tidbit there.
You know, if governments did not have the people in the province or the cities to deal with, their work would be so much simpler. ;-)
OOOps … and that goes for the Feds too. :-)
Oh, before I forget it. It is not quite as tight a timeframe as they make it out to be. They had years to prepare for it. In fact, more like a decade.
BTW, they had a clawback of 20%, I think it was, to put cutting rights into the hands of BCTS to appease the USA (little did they know the USA would let us down and vitually quit buying our timber) so that they could put it on the open market.
Well, maybe it is time for a clawback to make sure that those who are affected more by the MPB in their licensed area will get access through a redistribution of cutting rights so that everyone has a relatively similar impact. Or else buy out the license with due to the government’s part in the crop failure.
http://www.ominecacoalition.ca/Strategies/ForestAndFibre/pdf/OBACInterimActionPlanForests.pdf
That is a description from OBAC of the interim action paln as of over 3 years ago.
The direction taken at the time seems to be to try to diversify the use of the forest resources rather than delivering more of the same product since more of the same product was likely not an option due to the downturn of the timber supply for traditional products.
So, here we have a mill that has been shut down due to a fire. The interest is not so much in rebuilding the mill but to provide jobs.
Surely one of the options to explore in this opportune time is to base those jobs on the direction that has been spoken about in past deliberations with the communities.
If that is not so, then tell us why not. All that work by OBAC and the mayors and the companies has been for nothing.
In all honesty… If Hampton was to rebuild. A new streamlined mill, would employee appoximently how many people per shift.. Once operational?
It employed approximently 250 people . I understand the new mills are so automated and operate using a handful of people.
Rebuilding would be beneficial for the forestry sector. Logically how can it be beneficial for everyday workers of the mill?
New mill would have 8 per shift with 24 supervisors.
Grow the supply? The Pine Beetle problem hasn’t finished playing itself out yet. Even if the good ole US of A needed our wood there isn’t enough trees to go around. More mills will be shutting down.
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