The discussion is about too many workers without any jobs once the beetle wood has been cut.

If we need help, we need help to diversify the economy. We need help to promote investment in non forest related wealth generation businesses. Workers were imported in the past to start up major projects. I do not see that as the major hurdle.

Too many are talking fibre when "forests" go far beyond fibre.

In my view those who speak that way are no different than those who are hooked on oil.

We cannot continue to build this community on the fibre content of the forests. There is a limit. And when looking backwards in the mirror, one view is that we have built our capacity too high.

We talk about sustainability but we have built an industry which is showing us that it is not sustainable at the rate we have been harvesting with the harvesting methods used and the silviculture approaches we have taken. It has become obvious that we have not adequately built in the natural disturbance factor.

We define the 200 year flood plain in this city, but we do not define the 200 year natural disturbance factor in the forests.

A rotation in these parts is 80 years or so. That takes us back to 1926. We are barely seeing the first harvesting of post harvest timber and already we are having problems.

We have reached the limit..... we are working on the edge .... any unforeseen event impacts operations which have reached their capacity limit in a catastrophic way.

We simply have to recognize that there are others in the world who can fill the gap this will leave on the world market. It will not even be a world blip. But we are in the middle of it and for us it is a major blip. We need to listen to the message and take advantage of that and find other things we can market which will bring us a more stable livelihood. We must make sure we are the winners, not the losers.

So, it was suggested that the Russians will send raw logs to the USA. Yes, they certainly have that capability and have already been providing raw logs to other countries such as Japan and Korea.

Non-Russian investors, such as Canfor, may also look at building the newest plants in Russia, and sending the lumber and pulp to the same clients they have been dealing with from here. In addition, they may also look at getting the logs shipped to here to feed the investments which they own here and will be looking for raw materials when the pine runs out. We must remember that we have some of the more technically efficient plants in North America. Why ship logs to the USA, which has older plants which resulted in the countervailing duties in the first place. We buy logs on the open market from the Russians and compete with the USA on the same basis.

That will still leave a big gap, since the labour intensive part of the operation is the harvesting and transportation end of things, not the processing. So, value added, where art thou?

Certainly not pellets. That sounds good for now, but when we get reduced number of trees, we will get reduced waste which means reduced pellets. We will want to increase the number of jobs at the manufacturing end. Pellets simply do not cut it. It is better than beehive burners, but that is all it is.

Mouldings, trim, doors, windows, handrails, furniture, flooring, paneling, prefab buildings, etc. etc. These will generate jobs. What we are faced with is a major marketing effort; a major “re-tooling” effort if we wish to keep wood as our primary or major industrial base.

"If we do the right thing, the future is durable".

hmmmmm ....

no comment .....

"She called for Provincial and Federal financial assistance to diversify our economy and develop strand board, pellet and using renewable wood waste to generate heat."

These are all wood waste products. If we have less timeber to process, we will have less wood waste.

I am waiting to see when we will be getting some expert help to deal with these issues.

Has anyone suggested how we might do that?

Has anyone realized that such help is needed?

Do people agree that such help is needed or do they feel they can solve it themselves?

How long will people play along with one public forum afer another?

A conference by a bunch of left wing socialist and glory seekers. Someone should have harnessed all the hot air.
Funny how it was socialist engineering that got us here in the first place. Just shows you what p!ssing and moaning gets you. More of the same. Ugk!

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Owl says "So, value added, where art thou?," and "Mouldings, trim, doors, windows, handrails, furniture, flooring, paneling, prefab buildings, etc. etc. These will generate jobs. What we are faced with is a major marketing effort; a major “re-tooling” effort if we wish to keep wood as our primary or major industrial base."

I've said "art is the ultimate value added product." It's interesting to note that the products Owl mentions all have creative, artistic and significant design attributes attached to them.

Could it be that our economic survival is tied to our creative, artistic and design ability? That's too bad, because we don't value those things here. Look at the designs of our buildings, our landscaping, lack of public art, poor public creative infrastructure. We poo-poo the creative, artistic and aesthetic, and wonder why we don't have a strong value-added industry here.

It's time for everyone to pick up a copy of Daniel Pink's book, "A Whole New Mind," and understand that our economy is moving from an information economy to a conceptual economy.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1573223085/qid=1141408677/sr=2-1/ref=pd_bbs_b_2_1/104-0114249-4564702?s=books&v=glance&n=283155

Art, culture and creativity are at the centre of our new economic reality and we had better embrace them or perish.

Shawn Petriw

Great observation Shawn and bang on.

What is it that fascinates everyone about log homes?

The material itself would be one; the craftsmanship and virtual uniqueness of each building would be another, I am sure.

Bottom line is we don't have the political leadership to make diversification happen.

Great to see people like Peter Ewert out there bringing together people from all sides to provide some direction for our political leadership.

The first thing that our Politicians, and others in the City have to do is to get honest with themselves and others. If we continually pretend that great things are coming down the road (In the near future) then we fall into the trap of beleiving that things will take care of themselves. Some of the storys going around lately have been.

(1) Major increase in mining. While this may be true, it is also true that a number of mines will be closing, therefore probably no net gain.

(2) Huge reserves of oil and gas in the Nechako Basin. Maybe, however if it is there, then why hasnt some oil Company done something about it. I beleive Hunter Oil drilled some test holes here about 20 years ago. Even if there is oil/gas we should understand that the Nechako Basin Runs from around Smithers/Houston to South of Quesnel BC and so finding oil does not necessarily mean any major spin off for Prince George. If there is not going to be any progress on the Oil/Gas in the next 10 or 20 years then we should be saying this, so that we can get it out of the way and look for something else.

(3) The expansion of the Prince Rupert Port for a Major Container Terminal. While this is great for Prince Rupert for jobs in the short term, after the Port is built I beleive they will have something like 80 full time jobs to run it. Will Prince George get any spin off from this Port. Some people think that will come from establishing a Inland Container Terminal, however there is very much to do, to get a Terminal up and Running and then at best you will be loading out containers to Prince Rupert which would normally go to Vancouver, and at the end of the day you will have no net gain of jobs, just a different way of doing what we are doing now. You might get some secondary industrie to send finished products to China, however as we all know it is cheaper to send them the raw product and have them make the finished product, than it is to produce the finished product in this Country. (Wages)

4) Reforestation. Any trees planted to-day will not be available for logging for 80 Years. Those trees that were planted in the 60's and 70's are less than half grown, and now of course a lot of them are beetle infested. I think it would be fair to say that our Major Industry in this Area is in a major decline and face that as a fact. At what point is beetle infested wood no longer any good for lumber?? I have heard that if it isnt logged for 5 to 8 years it rots and becomes useless.

(5) Its ok to talk about skilled labour etc, but we should keep in mind that these skilled labour people are leaving here to go to other areas to work in mines, and other industries, because there is little or no work here for them, and if things continue, there will be even less in the future.

(6) Prince Georges population has not grown for over 10 years. This is a statistical fact, not (BS) at this point in time there is absolutley no reason for us to expect that it will grow any larger in the next 10 years. Even if it did grow, the average growth for the whole Province over the last 34 years was approx 2 to 3 % per year. With most areas growing at a rate of 1% per year, or less. This hardly bodes well for the future.

(7) Major development of the Prince George Airport to some kind of International Freight Terminal. Again this is talk, what has anyone heard specifically. The truth of the matter is the Airport does not have the money for a Major expansion of the runways at this time, and if this City doesnt grow and more people do not use the Airport it will never have the Money. It took 60 years for the Airport to get where it is to-day. It is highly unlikely it will make any major changes in the next 10 years.

(8) UNBC. The enrollments at UNBC and CNC have levelled off in the last 3 years. I havent seen the figures for 2005, however it appears that we have reached negative growth at this University or very little increase in enrollments. This should not be a suprise to anyone considering that there is a very small population base in the Northern Interior, with declining enrollments in School District 57, high drop out rates, etc, University in Kamloops, Kelowna, and of Course the 3 Major Universities in the lower mainland. Those who run the University always paint a rosy picture, but the fact of the matter is, if they cannot get enrollments up at this University then they have a problem. Will they admit it, or will they along with others in the town continue to project great things in the future.

(9) Having meetings and waxing philosphically about the state of the nation will change nothing. People will have to come up with some real concrete ideas, that will get the interest of investors or nothing will be done.

(10) Why is it that when we have three MLA's from this area, people seem to think that we need meetings to prod the Government to do something. Maybe the meetings should be with the MLA's and have them explain in plain english what they see for the future of this area. Never mind the double speak.

(11) Why is our City Council going further and further in debt even as they know that things could get pretty bad in the future and that maybe we should be investing tax dollars wisely, rather that always overbuilding and spending like there is no end to the money supply.

These are just some thoughts on what is or could be happening to this town, and although they may appear to be negative, they are in fact a rough assessment of what may be coming down the pike, and we should be thinking hard on what we can do to maintain the status quo.

The future may very will lie with, Tourism, Agriculture, Cattle, Mining, and some secondary industry, however I wouldnt expect the City to get much bigger than it is to-day.