Dix Drops In
Tuesday, October 29, 2013 @ 6:59 PM
250News’ Ben Meisner, NDP Leader Adrian Dix, and NDP candidate Bobby Deepak, pose for a photo at Shooters Pub – photo 250News
Prince George, B.C. – Bit of a surprise for folks at Shooters Pub on Ospika this evening. Those who had stopped by for a bite to eat before the Cougars vs Giants hockey game, saw a familiar face at a corner table.
NDP leader, and leader of the opposition, Adrian Dix is in town.
“I am heading to the hockey game tonight, and I am cheering for the Cougars” said Dix.
The events of late last week, which saw Canfor and West Fraser announce mill closures and a swap of forest tenure area also on his radar. “There’s no question there’s timber supplyissues, but in the case of Houston and Quesnel, they ( Provincial Government) approved it ( forest tenure swap) without having a plan in place for those communities. In the case of Houston, think of it, 34 hundred people in Houston, losing more than 200 permanent jobs. That’s like the City of Vancouver losing 50 thousand jobs, and that doesn’t include the trickle down effect. Can you imagine the cataclysm that would be?” He says that is why he supports the idea of having a “Jobs protection commissioner” because Dix says the cuts announced last week, are not going to be the last we see in the forest industry.
“Yes it’s important to solidify the mills we have, but we also have to address the issues in the community. I suspect Quesnel is going to lose a half a million dollars from its tax base, so it will face some real challenges. They have a Cabinet Minister (Coralee Oakes) of Municipal affairs from their town, and there is no plan, it’s embarrassing.”
Dix says he met with the folks at CNC today, and some reps from forestry, as well as some staunch members of the NDP. He says he is just “continuing his work as leader of the NDP.”
He says the issue of skills training is still at the top of his priority list “I think young people could have a very bright future in BC but only if they have access to the jobs.”
But his days as leader are drawing to a close, he has announced he will give up the post as soon as a new leader has been decided, although the Party has not indicated just when that convention will be held. So with no sitting of the Legislature, no firm date for a leadership convention, does he feel his work now is “all for not”?
“No, the day after the election, I was disappointed, but I got up and I went to work, and every day I do what I do, which is to try and hold the government to account.”
Comments
Future headline will read **Dix drops out**
I agree that their should have been a plan in place. Here we have two huge Forest Companies, and the Provincial Government working behind closed doors, and basically dividing up the spoils in a tenure swap.
I sincerely doubt that any thought was given to the big picture.
A. Why are the exporting of logs increasing year over year when there is a shortage of fibre. Some of the logs that export through the Port of Prince Rupert come from the Houston, Hazelton, Kitwanga, area. Could these logs not have been sold to West Fraser and Canfor to keep their mills running.??
B. What happened to the TFL’s for Canfor’s Upper Fraser, Clear Lake, Rustad, mills??
How about the timber from The Pas Lumber?? Couldn’t some of this timber go to Quesnel to keep that mill running.
I think the intent here is to shut down more mills, and increase production in others to maintain the same production, with 400 plus less jobs.
If the Liberals had not allowed these Companies to mill their timber anywhere in the Province I’m sure some of them would still be operating.
Can the NDP get any answers?? Somehow I doubt it.
Who will replace Dix??? If they come up with some other low key person, then they may as well get out of the business of politics.
“If the Liberals had not allowed these Companies to mill their timber anywhere in the Province I’m sure some of them would still be operating.”
Sure, at half capacity? Quarter capacity?
Why are people forgetting that in order to cut down the unit price of dimension lumber to the USA when they were imposing tariffs on timber from Canada, especially BC, the mills churned out lumber like crazy by adding shifts.
In order to run an infrastructure like a mill efficiently, it need to operate as close to full tilt as possible.
A waste of money and a loss in competitive edge when one runs four mills half shifts when one can operate two mills full shift.
If these mills were City Hall, people would be all over the Hall for working ineffectively and inefficiently with our tax dollars. We are the “shareholders” of City Hall. I expect the mill shareholders to act exactly the same way as we as taxpayers do.
DPJ…If you say so. :)
“A. Why are the exporting of logs increasing year over year when there is a shortage of fibre. Some of the logs that export through the Port of Prince Rupert come from the Houston, Hazelton, Kitwanga, area. Could these logs not have been sold to West Fraser and Canfor to keep their mills running.??”
A good question that needs to be answered Palopu!
Maybe ask the Nisga’a?
So what does the Nisga’a Nass Valley, northwest of Terrrace, BC, have to do with Kitwanga, Houston, and Hazelton whole log exports to the Port of Prince Rupert?
Come on JB, we are talking about potential wood fibre supply being available, within a “reasonable” distance, for the Houston Mill which is closing.
Yes let me guess.. you mention the Nisga’a because they are shipping whole logs to the Port of Prince Rupert for export overseas. Yes I/we don’t agree with it, but what does that have to do with the mill closure at Houston?
Not a bad analogy Gus except you overlook the fact that we look after the City of Prince George. We don’t try and run (much) the Cities of Quesnel, Vanderhoof, Houston, MacKenzie, etc;
In other words we stay within our designated territories (except for trying to buy property in the Hart Regional District) .
Its no different for companies. How far are you going to allow them to ship fibre to the detriment to the people in the area that have a vested interest in it.
The tariffs (tax) on lumber to the USA come into effect when the price is around $315 FBM . I think at this time it is around 10%. This in fact is a tax collected at the border by the Federal Government, and then refunded to the Provinces. The companies who pay the taxes are more than adequately compensated by low stumpage rates. Especially for beetle kill timber.
What does the Provincial Government do with the refunded money, which runs approx. $200 Million per year?
So we need to look at the big picture, and have a bit of the pie for everyone, rather than the forest companies getting the pie, and the people of the Province getting the pie plate (cardboard)
Have a nice day.
I cringe at the fact of even thinking of city hall operate a sawmill in the fashion they run the city although there are some benefits like being able to charge mill employees for off street parking.
“Maybe ask the Nisga’a?” not to mention the Tahl’tan. They hold the TFL on a lot of timber in NW BC.
Palopu
In one breath you say logs from the coast should be milled inland and in the next say that forest companies should not be able to move timber around the province. Talk about a circular argument.
You talked the other day how improvements to the mills is code for fewer jobs, what happens when the technology in the mill gets so outdated that the mills are no longer economically viable and it would be cost prohibitive to bring them up to current standards? Look no further than the mills you mentioned Upper Fraser, Clear Lake, Rustads and the Pas. They are simply the low hanging fruit when the fiber basket shrinks, but is has now reached a point that the harder decisions are being made.
Unfortunately lumber is a commodity and the companies do not set the price for their product based on manufacturing cost,interest, taxes, depreciation,amortization, etc plus a profit. They also have to harvest a certain amount of timber regardless if the price is $150mfbm or $450mfbm, this also drives another nail in the coffin of the least efficient mills.
I’m sure the companies would run all the mills, including the ones that are shuttered, with current prices but only produce enough to keep their big customers(Lowes Home Depot) happy when the price drops to $150. Under the terms of their license they are prevented from doing so.
One other thing that I don’t think has been mentioned, are the logs that are being exported huge coastal fir and hemlock trees that would be useless in the interior softwood mills?
Dix who ?
@ lonesome… then how about reopening the sawmills that were closed in Terrace or Hazelton to mill those logs… my god… did you completely miss the point about value added being a good thing.
You also mentioned technology in mills being outdated, relative to who??? Technology in our sawmills is more advanced than Mexico and the USA. We are the most technologically advanced lumber producers in North America! Stop thinking out loud and do some research to support your misbegotten facts!
People#1
Have you set foot in a sawmill before? I highly doubt it!!
Go out and have a look at some of the scragg mills and come back here and tell us how advanced we are..!
The truth is the we have some of the most advanced mills and equally some of the most decreptant mills out there.. It all boils down to timber profie and how well a mill is set up to handle it and how well a company manages this.
By the way your talking to an ex log broker, lumber grader and scaler..
northman; haver you even set foot in a sawmill in Mexico or the US? If you had then you would IMMEDIATELY realize that even the US sawmills are operating with 1960’s technology!
“We have to overcome a lot of misconceptions about the issue, on both sides of the border. The powerful U.S. lumber lobby, for instance, suggests that the protectionist duty is necessary because of unfair Canadian government subsidies to the forest industry, particularly in B.C. This argument has been refuted by numerous academic studies and rejected by international trade tribunals. Canadian lumber is no more subsidized than U.S. lumber. The most inefficient American mills just cannot compete against the combination of a low Canadian dollar, extremely efficient Canadian mills, and abundant timber supply in Canada. The Americans, especially in the southern pine region, having failed to improve their productive capacity are facing growing timber shortages. They have responded not by improving stewardship or investing more, but by blaming Canada.”
I could cite the source of this quote… but you wouldn’t like it!
Here is why the “powerful” US lumber collation cannot compete with Canadian lumber producers; because they are spending 100s of millions of dollars lobbying their governments to protect their market, rather that using that money to invest in more efficient technological methods of producing lumber!
Yet having said this, I have problems with “economies of scale” super mills like the Canfor mill in Houston. More lumber production using less jobs is not a good thing either!
northman; haver you even set foot in a sawmill in Mexico or the US?
Yes!! And Canadian mills use optimization technology which is researched, developed and used in the US.. Like i said before it boils down to the timber profile the mill is running and how management plans for it.
Let me guess where you got your quote from.. Most likely the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports.. Which i might add got their case turned down in court..!!
“Yet having said this, I have problems with “economies of scale” super mills like the Canfor mill in Houston. More lumber production using less jobs is not a good thing either!”
You just dont have a clue..do you..?
You need super mills to run beetle wood to make a profit becaue you need the optimization technology to get the maximum amout of recovery out timber profiles that you cant run in a small operation because its too labour intensive. The new technology is also keeping workers safe by reducing the physicall handling of the wood.
“Yet having said this, I have problems with “economies of scale” super mills like the Canfor mill in Houston. More lumber production using less jobs is not a good thing either!”
You just dont have a clue..do you..?
You need super mills to run beetle wood to make a profit becaue you need the optimization technology to get the maximum amout of recovery out timber profiles that you cant run in a small operation because its too labour intensive. The new technology is also keeping workers safe by reducing the physicall handling of the wood.
Your concerned about less jobs?
Tell me about your aspirations to work a green chain, or operate old run down equipment which might hurt or kill you.. Because this is what you can expect from a mill that cant compete globaly and is not a supermill running the most current technology..
You are correct northman, running 1960 technology today would require a price consistently above $250mfbm for the mills to stay solvent.
Things like slew and skew infeeds, log turners, shape sawing and thin kerf saws have made it possible to make lumber out of the ever decreasing quality of log. The LRF from a scrag saw would just not cut it today(pun intended:)
Lonesome..
Not to mention some of the beetle wood shatters when it hits an old scragg or inset tooth headrig saw..Unless the business is into making toothpicks..
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