I notice that Tembec is shutting down its mill near Cranbrook for two weeks.

"James Lopez, Tembec's president and CEO, said, "In the absence of an offsetting measure to allow Canadian producers to level the playing field, our industry and its employees will continue to pay the price through mill idlings and closures."

The Skookumchuck pulp mill will also be affected by the Canfor Radium closure and the chip supply issues it is going to face going forward. All pulp mills are facing issues in the chip side for high cost of chips and the pulp side due to low value of pulp (partially due to the US subsidy). One thing for sure is that PG cannot afford to loose one pulpmill, much less all 3.

Think of how nice the air quality would be. In one hand "jobs", in the other hand "healthy air", which do you think will win out in the end? In one hand "American interests" in the other hand "Canadian interests", which do you think will win in the end? In one hand "the planet", in the other hand "money", which do you think will win in the end?

My guesses:
JOBS
AMERICANS
MONEY

we would have clean air because there wouldn't be anyone here to pollute it

the sad thing is that the american mills are actually adding deisel to their boilers so they can get an "environmental" tax credit.

What are the other issues facing the Pulp and Paper industry? Pressures to become more environmentally friendly? An adequate supply of raw materials to keep the mills running? Potential permanent decline in the demand for their products? The subsidy occuring in the US certainly is a major short-term concern, but I'd also suggest that there are other issues looming about that may not be on the radar for many folks.

I read in the paper that the feds are considering a 1 billion dollar aid package to help the industry become more environmentally friendly. That would be a great investment IMHO as it could help with the long term viability of the industry and it would help with some of the environmental concerns at the same time.

As for losing a pulp mill, I suspect that will eventually occur regardless of what happens with this US subsidy issue. Most every city eventually changes with time and PG is no different.

Just like the economic base for the city today is vastly different than what it was in 1980 (even though the population and number of jobs is similar), it will likely be vastly different in 2040 than what it is today. Industries come and go and they shrink and expand. New jobs get created and others are lost. People come to town to fill new jobs and people leave town when ther job is no longer around. Such is the cycle in every city in the world and I don't see how we can ensure that PG is any different.

Much like what the forestry industry should do, our best bet is to keep working to ensure that we don't rely on one industry (customer in the case of forestry). This isn't meant to discount what forestry means/meant to Prince George, but you also can't be complacent with stuff like this. That WILL result in a town that dies when something like a pulp mill or two shuts down . . .

"New jobs get created and others are lost. People come to town to fill new jobs and people leave town when ther job is no longer around."

Yea like Mackenzie. Oh wait.... Bad example.

Sure change is inevitable but operations like the university are not going to be available to PG (becuase its been done). So what can we do now? Where does ikea build its furniture?

"Yea like Mackenzie. Oh wait.... Bad example"

Actually it is a good example. That's exactly what I was talking about in the last paragraph of my post.

As for what can we do to replace pulp mills, which may or may not close down, I wish I had a crystal ball! It does strike me as odd though, that we don't have any "value added" wood related manufacturing taking place in our entire region. That's crazy. I find it hard to believe that there isn't some percentage of a market that we couldn't cater to in those regards. Why not try to get back to making things from our resources instead of sending them off to someone else to make things?

I do think we can benefit from our location as far as a transportation hub goes and I know that allot of people don't buy into this, but I think it makes for an interesting case. We have the big runway, we're at the crossroads of highways going East, West, North and South and the same goes for railways. We're smack in the middle of an area that extracts resources that need to be shipped and we have an abundance of cheap land to build facilities.

I don't even think we need to rely on things we've always done. Why not try and attract some other types of manufacturing to the area? We have many workers used to working in industrial environments, we have infrastructure to ship varied parts and components to and from plants, we have reliable power grids, we have an educated workforce available, we have facilities which could help prospective companies with R&D, etc.

I know that tourism always gets a bad rap as well, but there are many cities that get a fairly significant inflow of dough just becayse they are in an area that people might want to visit. IF (and that's a bif if), we can clean up the city, I think we do have the opportunity to be a bit of a gateway for outdoor related tourism ppportunities. If people choose to live here because of the outdoors, there are certainly people out there who would choose to visit for those same reasons.

Maybe we can try and take advantage of the shift to green technology and attract some of those investment dollars. A cold weather testing area for electric cars perhaps? Maybe we can provide incentives for companies looking to build batteries? Wind and solar technology?

I am pretty confident in saying that Prince George will NOT be relying on pulp mills 25 years down the road. That will either be because they will have all shut down and the city will have imploded, or it will be because the City will have changed enough so that it is relying on some other form of industry or industries.

Who really knows what the future will hold, however, I guarantee that the Prince George of 2034 will not be a replica of the Prince George of 2009.

I would like to see BC and the rest of Canada begin to manufacture more from the raw materials that are extracted from our natural resources.

I know this is a terrible example given the state of the auto industry but couldn't we get a auto manufacturing facility in Prince George? Build cars using the minerals and resources produced by local suppliers?

How about if they build more pre-fabbed houses here and then ship the finished product.

How about another oil refinery? If not in PG, what about Mackenzie where an abundance of power and water resources are present? Maybe a smelter?

There is no such thing as an Auto Manufacturing facility in North America. The parts for automobiles are made all over the world and shipped to facilities where they are made into cars.

You will always want to build your industry as close as possible to your market, therefore Prince George is out of the loop. We are about as far as you can get from any highly populated area, and anything we manufactured here would have to be shipped out, and the shipping costs would be prohibitive.

You can manufacture cheap products in China, Mexico, Malayasia etc; because of the cheap labour. You will not get anyone in this part of the Country to work in a factory etc; for 2 dollars per day. This is your competition in the real world.

The Auto Industry is broke because of the high cost of an inferior ;product, however all the plants are located as close as possible to the high [population areas, and then shipped out from there. They will make some kind of a comeback, but it sure as hell wont be in this part of the Country.

This part of the Country has **Raw Materials** which can be shipped in bulk, at a fairly cheap rates to places in the world where there is a market, and cheap labour, and thats where the manufacturing is done. The steel industry in the US and Canada has been killed off by the Japanese, and Chinese, because of their ability to produce it much cheaper.

After the forest Industry and some cattle, and mining, the only growth industry in this area is Government workers. IE; University, College, and School teachers, Goverment workers, City workers, Regional District workers. etc; etc; etc; If the forest industry should dry up. Ie; Lumber, Pulp and Paper, then all the Government jobs will disapear also because there will be less people in this area, to look after.

You might be able to do something with the tourist industry, however it would take a lot of forward looking people and millions of dollars to get it off the ground, and we have an acute shortage of these type of people in Prince George.

This is a small town with big town ambitions, however its mostly smoke and no fire.

"It would take a lot of forward looking people and millions of dollars to get it off the ground, and we have an acute shortage of these type of people in Prince George"

I agree that we do indeed have a shortage of these types of people in PG. It's one of the main things that has held us back IMHO. Too much reliance on what worked "in the past", too concerned with what "built the city" and not enough focus on what will ensure the city remains viable into the future. That's one of the benefits of diversification though. It brings in fresh blood, people with new ideas, cultures and connections. It takes time but those additions eventually help with positive change.

"This is a small town with big town ambitions, however its mostly smoke and no fire"

Somewhat true, depending on what you consider a "big" town. For the time being, I think we need to simply focus on making incremental diversification efforts so that at the very least, we can maintain the population that we do have and be even less reliant on one particular sector. If we can do that, I think the growth will come.

In short, I think we need to keep moving ahead and stick to what we've been doing the last 10-15 years. I don't think there is much doubt that the transformation we've made in that period of time has put us into a better position than where we would've been had we run into this slump before those times. We could very well have to take a step or two back before returning to some forward momentum, but we can do it. It may even take some sort of major setback to force us into it.

With all the beetle kill wood available in this area, all the electricity that is being produced here, or going through this town, all the natural gas etc,. along with all the cheap land, you would think that we culd build huge green houses to grow, tomatoes, and other vegetable products, and ship them out. They do this in Vancouver, and supply a lot of it to California, and other states.

In Alberta they have huge potato farms, and they make french fries for the restaurant industrie. We have plenty of land to grow root vegetables, both in the Prince George area, and also West of here around Vanderhoof, Mud River, etc; However it seems that all we grow is hay.

Our big entry into the fresh produce industry is to put in a community garden at 7th and Victoria.

There are huge chunks of land lying fallow East of the Air;port that could be put to use. Perhaps we culd grow corn for feed, or for shipping to use in biofuel.

In any event there are a number of things that could be done in the area, however it seems no one wants to take any chances.

We grow seedlings for replanting because we have a gauranteed market, and little or no risk. Little or no risk is the Canadian Businessmens motto.

With all the beetle kill wood available in this area, all the electricity that is being produced here, or going through this town, all the natural gas etc,. along with all the cheap land, you would think that we culd build huge green houses to grow, tomatoes, and other vegetable products, and ship them out. They do this in Vancouver, and supply a lot of it to California, and other states.

In Alberta they have huge potato farms, and they make french fries for the restaurant industrie. We have plenty of land to grow root vegetables, both in the Prince George area, and also West of here around Vanderhoof, Mud River, etc; However it seems that all we grow is hay.

Our big entry into the fresh produce industry is to put in a community garden at 7th and Victoria.

There are huge chunks of land lying fallow East of the Air;port that could be put to use. Perhaps we culd grow corn for feed, or for shipping to use in biofuel.

In any event there are a number of things that could be done in the area, however it seems no one wants to take any chances.

We grow seedlings for replanting because we have a gauranteed market, and little or no risk. Little or no risk is the Canadian Businessmens motto.

Those are good ideas Palopu.

" Little or no risk is the Canadian Businessmens motto."

It's certainly seems sometimes that's the Canadian BANKER'S motto. And some are now saying, in view of the financial debacles elsewhere, that that's a good thing. We'll see.

Really, though, all that is needed to do any of these wonderous things is to present a credible business plan showing that there's a reasonable expectation of profit over the term of the loan. Sufficient enough to amortize the capital needed, if it is borrowed. Or a similar indication that the venture can provide a return on investment commensurate with the risks involved, if it's funded through placements of equity. But that's pretty hard to do, I guess, if the real purpose isn't making something that's needed or wanted anywhere, save for the fact it might put someone to "work". Couldn't we do the same thing just digging holes and then filling them in again?

I think you'll find that in nearly all the examples of what "could be done" mentioned above, aside from doing many of them to "make work", which is really the wrong reason to do anything, the largest obstacle to overcome is "marketing". Finding someone who wants your product, and can actually buy and pay you for it. And will.

If it's a product that is going to enter some foreign market and its importation means job loss in that market, so long as most people are gaining their incomes from employment there, too, you've just reduced their ability to consume by removing their income.

What's worse, however, is that in their WHOLE economy the OVERALL level of manufacturing "profit" internally is reduced by every dollar spent on the imported product.

And that is a dollar of 'debt' their businesses have previously incurred that now CANNOT be repaid.

Since the repayment of loan Principal is NOT a business "expense", but is rather funded from "profit".

When the OVERALL level of manufacturing business "profit" declines, and the default of loans that have been made begins to rise as a result, credit will dry up in that importing country.

And the sale of product from the 'exporting' one can then only continue to be made abroad by what amounts to "enslaving" its workforce.

To produce at ever lower 'cost' this means longer hours, less pay, no benefits, more production, etc. ~ all the wonderous things that are supposed to make "BC Number One Again", in other words.

There is a solution, but so long as people are still focussed on "making work" first, rather than making and distributing "product" HERE that CAN be made HERE first, we're never going to find it. To paraphrase an old saying, "What BC makes, makes BC."