There is only so much wood in the woods available, and it is the sign of the times.

Now what the mills need to do is work together to ensure that they do not spend all their time comepeting against each other, and start getting better prices for our trees they process.

We somehow need to get better prices for our trees. A set stumpage fee, plus some how attach minimum man-hours of work for every cubic meter of wood brought into the yard. This policy would be a 5 yr deal, because it may stifle innovations. The race should not be how fast we can turn logs into lumber, the focus should be on getting more for our product on a global scale.

“Facing a looming skills shortage, promises to address skills training flew through the air during the last election – but the Ministry of Advanced Education won’t be feeling the support following a $29 million cut to employment programs in the 2014 budget.”

Guess the workers wont be getting any any improving their skills.

In good news though, BC is leading the country in part time job growth.

“plus some how attach minimum man-hours of work for every cubic meter of wood brought into the yard” .. ya, that will help unemployment. I think they do that already….it is called “log exports”.

kind of ironic, the so called caretakers of the land…”First Nation” has no problems making a living exporting raw logs to china. While on the otherhand they preach how bad us white people are with the pipeline.

Sometimes there just hypocrites waiting for the right price tag to sell their beliefs.

Good luck to all the people affected by these closures. I went through the same thing back in 08 when the Paper mill shut down in Mackenzie. Here’s hoping that everyone lands on their feet and this is just a minor bump in the road.

One gets a really good feeling when we see that the following groups are out there looking after our interests.

Northern Development Initiative Trust
North West Community College
Job Fair, Economic Development Workshop, Supplier Boot camp.
Grant writing works.
Land Development Workshop.

The BC Government knew about these closures long before the official announcement was made, and were naturally working with West Fraser, and Canfor to get the TFL swap in place.

Was there any attempt to keep these mills running for next 5/10 years??? Was the closure announcement made after the election?? What would Canfor and West Fraser have done if the Government did not allow the TFL swap. Perhaps we could have salvaged one mill.

Next will be the layoff of some 400 full time jobs at Kitimat once the new smelter is up and running. Where will these workers go??? In addition there will be some 2500 construction workers on the move. It appears that there may be a bit of a slump in the Terrace, Kitimat, Houston area.

Hence the saving grace of LNG Plants. Hmmmm.

PS. Seems the pace of the LNG plants have slowed down, with perhaps one up and running in 3/4 years.

So even the salvation of LNG may not materialize. Hmmmmm,

Palopu, you’ve been an LNG naysayer as long as the idea first came about. No, there are no guarantees, but there rarely are in life.

Many companies are spending a lot of money trying to make LNG happen. I find it hard to believe you know more about LNG than the business development people who work for these companies.

Oil and gas is a huge revenue generator for the province, even more than forestry I believe. I realize that nobody in PG knows about anything other than trees, but there is more out there.

But BC is going to need 1,000,000 workers by 2020, so what’s the big deal. So our gov’t says.

You bet JohnnyBelt. We have approx. 15 Countries around the world that have been exporting LNG since 1971 forward. We have approx. 17 Countries that have been importing LNG during the same time period.

So, these firms have been in the business for over 40 years, have functioning plants, long term contracts, and basically control the LNG industry.

Along comes Christi Clark who is going to change the LNG industry, and BC will become a big player. Somehow I don’t think that is going to happen anytime soon.

The industry is already on record stating that the tax concessions in the budget do not meet their needs.

In other words they want the gas for nothing so that they can make huge profits, and we the taxpayers will get a few jobs.

Reminds me of the old Socred Campaign a number of years ago where they announced just before an election that they would build a Mono Rail to Alaska, and open up the Rocky Mountain Trench for mining etc;

50 years later we are still waiting.

Lets look at this again just before the next election, I am sure that they will have a token LNG plant operating, while promising more to come,

It was the wood industry that built North America, oil and gas followed.

Palupo calls for a slump in terrace and Houston. Sorry, I can’t stop laughing. I hope he doesn’t work in stocks or real estate. I need to cut and paste that post in a year or so…

I agree Palopu. We missed the LNG gravy train a long time ago.

Interceptor. The slump will come from the 400 lost fulltime jobs at Rio Tinto Alcan next year. Plus the 250 jobs that will disappear in May when they shut down the West Fraser Mill. In addition there will be other jobs affected.

So we are probably looking at 1000 jobs lost. Do we have 1000 jobs to replace them??? Certainly there will be some jobs on Highway 37, however once the transmission line is in we will lose those jobs, and what remains will be mining jobs.

The mining jobs will be good for the area, however it does mean moving closer to the work or commuting every other week-end.

I see a slump. What do you see.

Palpou, industry is leading the charge on LNG. The Liberals are just trying to move it forward by not being the NDP. Billions have been spent and billions more is on the table. You can spew stats about other regions exporting LNG, but do you think for a second that some of the biggest gas players on the planet are stupid? Do you think they are not aware of global supply and demand of LNG? It will happen, how big and when is the question.

LNG reminds me of north-east coal back a few decades ago. Unlimited markets in Asia, we were told. The can’t get enough of it. Black gold. We’d be debt-free and have a jobs shortage, they said. Ah, well, sure sounded good at the time.

I’ve got a good idea, give every citizen five free shares in LNG and soon we will all be RICH! RICH I TELL YOU, RICHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

Now,Now….dont criticize Christy about LNG…..she says her favourite cartoon is “The Jetson’s”and she got a lot of her LNG innovations ideas from this!!!

What an intelligent and thought provoking comment, taxpayerteacher. I hope for our kid’s sake that you’re not a real teacher.

As dow said, this is not being driven by government or Christy Clark for that matter. It is being driven by different companies in the industry.

If one cared to look at the Companies that are presently in the importing and exporting of LNG you would see that it is the same companies that are presently in the business of setting up LNG plants in BC. (and in the USA I might add)

So they already have a corner on the market, and are only looking for more profit. If we give them a deal they cant refuse, they will build some plants. lf we don’t, they won’t.

They get the gas, and we get a few jobs. Its just that simple.

Don’t forget royalties and tax revenue. The gas and oil industry employs a huge number of people in BC, so it shouldn’t be understated. We are a resource based economy, and it definitely means more than trees. People in PG might have a hard time with that, but those are the facts.