so when are the mills startin back up ?

Way to spin it Pat Bell! " We are laying off people in the MOF, cut volume is down 30%, but really the news is good ! "
Pat you put pollyanna to shame.

My thoughts exactly Bowzone! The government side of forestry has not laid off anyone. Hmmmm maybe that is why Pat Bell thinks things are rosey.

What, just because we are a forestry town in a forestry province in a country known for its forests, you expect mills to open just because lumber just went almost break even?

Dude, it ain't gonna happen.
If anything, they will build a new super mill in the lower mainland and truck every stick of wood to that highly automated, minimal labour required mill.

Well, maybe two (2) super mills, the other in Prince Rupert so it is closer to the port to China.

Like school boards and schools, if there is no forest harvesting, do we need a ministry?
If forestry is "dramatically reduced", do we need to dramatically reduce" the ministry?

Why do we in this province not have elected trustees in the Forest Ministry, similar to the Education Ministry, who are regionalized and independant of Provincial party dogma to make decisions?

I noticed the lumber prices have been edging up in the last few months. Good news for sure.

I heard he's got some swampland in florida for sale too calling it oceanfront property.

Ya here we go again Mr. minister of forests telling everyone that will believe him, that things are all happy again.What a truck load of B.S. We all know he has'nt missed to many meals or pay cheques. Go up to Mackenzie and talk to the people working at the new mill called "Scabitibi", there are a lot of scab labour there that would probably believe your B.S.

China just announced it will freeze all lending for 30-days, and possibly longer, country wide, because they don't have the money in the banking system to continue pumping their economy with monetary inflation. How that translates to a growth in Chinese exports this year is beyond me. America's credit crunch was bad, but at least they still had regional banks that were lending... China has no back up system in place and they will have no capital flowing for a month... we will witness a Chinese wall come tumbling down this year and Pat Bell expects it to get rebuilt with wood I guess?

The fact that Pat Bell won't talk about. A single mill like Rustads produced more lumber than entire provinces of Saskatchewan, or Manitoba, or Nova Scotia... some of these provinces will fight tooth and nail at the federal level to increase their quota's to ship to the US, and anyone that thinks mills in BC will come online again anytime soon and retain their previous quota's is living in a dream land... not without a fight anyways and I'd put my money on federal politics favoring those provinces over BC in this battle if for no other reason than it will create more jobs favoring those provinces.

Simple fact is once these mills are closed and the historical market volume of these companies is diminished they will not be getting their quota's back anytime soon even if they are short on inventory and know of willing buyers.

Is that why Pat Bell tries to sell us on the bankrupt Chinese factor and hopes we don't notice while he closes all our schools? Was the softwood lumber agreement supported by Pat Bell and the BC liberals, and isn't it this agreement that will now see us locked out of our traditional markets... no wonder he is pushing the China savior pitch.

Quick look over their folks... blue ski and its heading this way....

-"China just announced it will freeze all lending for 30-days, and possibly longer, country wide, because they don't have the money in the banking system to continue pumping their economy with monetary inflation."

-Go gold, the only realy money.. Yet another sign that the gold price will go higher so we can screw the forest industry and get some of these mines running. The lumber indusry wil never be what it once was. The boomers arent building houses anymore and there already is a massive surplus of houses in the states..And the only reason lumber export to china are soo good is because they are buying top grade lumber at a discount which normaly would go to the states..Onc the lumber price goes up the sales to china will level off. So im still not sold on china yet.. I do give Pat a thumbs up because he is actually involved in this indusry and he does fight for the people in this reigon when it comes to forestry.

I like the "lost it all" post; "Why do we in this province not have elected trustees in the Forest Ministry, similar to the Education Ministry, who are regionalized and independant of Provincial party dogma to make decisions?"

I think that might have some merits as an official advisory group engaging local interests and providing locally based recommendations.

The province keeps on claiming that it is doing this but more and more seems to go underground.

Whoever resides in a place where the local timber is likely to be hauled away to another town should stand up and fight for something like this.

If I was Pat Bell, I would jump at this chance to offload these problems and very difficult decisions as well.