Quesnel Gets To Work to Help Those Hit by Closure of Canfor Sawmill
Friday, October 25, 2013 @ 4:02 AM
Quesnel, B.C. – Quesnel Mayor Mary Sjostrom isn’t wasting any time in working on how her City Hall can assist the 209 employees of Canfor’s sawmill in Quesnel who have been told the mill will be closing by the end of March 2014.
“We knew, that with the fibre supply it was just a matter of time” says Mayor Sjostrom “But right now, my heart just goes out to those employees, many have been there for over 30 years”.
Quesnel will see the Canfor mill close in 2014, and Houston will see it’s West Fraser mill which employs 225 people, close by the end of the 2nd quarter next year. The closures are part of a deal that has the two forest companies swap some forest tenure to keep other operations competitive.
Mayor Sjostrom says although encouraged that Canfor will help employees transition to other Canfor operations, the City will put it’s transition team to work. “We are meeting to talk about all the various things we can do with the school district, the College, the employment centre , so people will have to figure out what they want to do. We have to kind of wait until it shakes down a bit.”
The blow of the Canfor mill closure in Quesnel was softened somewhat by the news West Fraser, with the added security of a fibre supply thanks to the tenure swap with Canfor, will keep its Quesnel mill open “I know they (West Fraser) have a three point plan on dealing with the impact of the mountain pine beetle and I will be meeting with West Fraser to get more of an indepth report from them.”
“It’s the way it is, we are a forest dependent community and we have a very vibrant community. I look at Mackenzie, goodness gracious, look what Mackenzie’s been through and they’re just doing great guns.”
Mackenzie Mayor Stephanie Killam knows how the communities of Quesnel and Houston feel. She led her community through the toughest times when mill closures in Mackenzie resulted in the loss of 1500 jobs. “It’s a shock to hear of the job losses in your community” says Mayor Killam “But if Quesnel or Houston need help, we will be there for them.” Killam says when her community faced its toughest times, the first thing they did was pull together its resources that could help those who need jobs. While Mayor Killam says while each community is different, she says her team will help in any way it can.
Quesnel’s Mayor says while 209 people will lose their jobs at the Canfor mill, there’s also the impact on the indirect jobs that are concerning “What about the trickle down effect? It’s the truckers, will they continue to work, what about the fellows in the bush, and the small businesses? So that’s why we’ve got a lot of great initiatives in the hopper and we’ve got to get them moving forward to help diversify.”
Mayor Sjostrom will be meeting today with her municipal team and she is looking for some support from the Provincial government. “We have a Minister ( Coralee Oakes – Minister of Community Sport and Cultural Development). We do have a collaborative with the Ministry of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and we were meeting on the 30th to talk about some of these initiatives. Now definitely I think we are going to step up a notch more and hopefully with the Minister (Coralee Oakes) and our MLA’s assistant we might get a few more people at the table because that’s what you need to do, you need to identify these things. I know they (Provincial Government) are under a budget crunch but these resource communities are important to the Province” She says the only commitment from the Province so far, is to come to the table and work with Quesnel “And that’s all we can ask for.”
Comments
Is this the fallout from the province, and mills selling raw logs to foreign countries over the past 30 years?
Think about it!
Not much to think about; the “raw log export” issue is a red herring in the interior.
I do believe it has been said that this is a direct result of the pine beetle epedemic…and many years back my father in law called repeatedly to the BC government to warn them of what was to come. As he found two trees on his property that were infected. And after been in the forestry trade for many many years..he knew what he was talking about. Unfortunately the government paid absolutely no attention and here is where we sit today. People losing jobs in the forestry trade is a major blow for BC. Never mind the small town they live in. It definitely will have a trickle down effect there. When it all could have been avoided. Sad..our government doesnt listen to us never mind what level they are at. Unless they are looking to get elected.
Basically some asshole in Victoria 20 years ago not looking ahead to the consequences for ignoring inteligent people.
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