Prince George, B.C. –  Prince George Mayor Lyn Hall has formally  welcomed the near 300 delegates to the 7th annual Bioenergy conference. taking place at the Prince George  Civic Centre.Delegates  to the conference have come from Australia,  Nepal, the Philippines,  the United States and from across Canada to  take part in the conference.

Mayor Hall stressed the importance of the forestry sector to Prince George with up to 3,000 employees directly employed in the sector.

Bioenergy  is  key in Prince George, with both the  downtown  energy system which is  fired with residue from the Lakeland mill,  and the University which is  heated  by  biomass.

Over the course of today,   delegates will  deal with issues such as bioenergy’s role in  reducing climate change, access to fibre, shifting  markets  and  the economics of bioenergy