With respect to the following sentence from the article, "Hill says the committment to spend the dollars is still there, the money is still there but they must have projects that will stand up to the scrutiny of all Canadians.", the following 2 paragraphs are from the CBC News web site (re: the federal budget which was put out a few days ago)

"Liberal Leader Jean Charest is promising to share new money promised to Quebec in the federal budget by granting income tax cuts.

In a speech at the Montreal Board of Trade Tuesday afternoon, Charest said the new equalization payment formula that will funnel an extra $2.3 billion to Quebec every year will allow the province to cut about $700 million in personal income taxes."

Mr. Hill, could you please tell me if granting an extra $2.3 billion dollars a year to Quebec (which allows them to cut provincial taxes) stands up to the scrutiny of all Canadians.

It is painfully obvious to me the reason why there is no more money in this years budget to help out Prince George in its time of need with our upcoming economic crunch due to the pine beetle epidemic, is that your government would rather spend the money buying votes in Quebec.

Over the last several decades Prince George has sent many tens of billions of revenue dollars to Ottawa. Now in our time of need, when we need some help, it is very disappointing to have the door slammed in our face.

Anyone wishing to read the whole CBC News article here is the link

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/quebecvotes2007/story/2007/03/20/qc-moretaxcuts20070320.html

The BC interior needs to remember this slap in the face at election time. I will not be voting Conservative again anytime soon.

We should not be beggars of our representatives. It is totally un-Canadian for our conservative MP’s to think that of us.. They should not represent Ottawa to us, but rather our concerns to Ottawa. When in power your true colors come through.

There are many ways Jay Hill and Dick Harris could provide diversification leadership to mitigate the pine beetle epidemic if they wanted to for this region.

#1) Jay Hill and Dick Harris could assist in declaring the PG bowl air-shed a special air-shed, and then allocate some federal funding to air-shed and infrastructure planning. (Ie planning major infrastructure build out to assist air-shed planning.) One wonders how many factory jobs PG has had to reject due to this basic simple lack of planning (ie fiberboard for one). Yet we proclaim huge success otherwise?

#2) Dick Harris could take leadership in the federal governments national highway infrastructure and in particular the federal responsibility for a PG South bi-pass to alleviate industrial traffic through the sensitive air-shed and commuter traffic congestion, as well as enhance the viability of this region as an efficient transportation hub signalling to the transportation world that we intent to compete. Considering the Geographic’s of Dick Harris riding and the relation to the Port of Prince Rupert and it is a small wonder Dick Harris has not even mentioned this issue himself, much less talked about it, or for that matter taken leadership.

#3) Jay Hill and Dick Harris could go a long way to seeing the Canadian Forces setting up a reserves base somewhere in Northern BC for natural disaster response as well as local training for reserves back-up and participation.

#4) Any number of research grants for our local institutions could be secured by Jay Hill for any number of critical issues for this region.

#5) What happened to the promise of electoral reform that they were originally elected on 15 years ago? Was it just a platform to a gold plated pension?

Many in Eastern Canada where the votes are counted surely would not view these things as not bearing up to the scrutiny considering the Canada-wide implications of the trans-Canada trade infrastructure corridor, or the fact PG has BC's worst air-shed, or the other obvious things like the pine beetle devastation and lack of Canadian Forces expenditures in this region.

I would challenge both MP’s to state anyone in the rest of Canada that would dare scrutinize these issues to our detriment considering not only the facts of the issues, but also that facts of our immense tax imbalance from this region. Surely the scrutiny would not be coming from Quebec or the BC Lower Mainland quarters.

The one thing that is clear from my perspective is that a politician that gets by as an opposition politician does not in this case make a politician that can provide leadership when needed and given the opportunity.

Seperate the west from the east..Its simple let the Frogs look after themselves.

Charels ... I like your style. That was a good hard hit and very deserving. I hope Hil and that other guy who gets plane rides to Ottawa and does nothing of substance to represent this area understand what holier than thou attitude they have towards their constituents as you have just pointed out.

Quite frankly, I think the federal government, no matter which party makes up the government of the day, needs some better scrutiny.

"One wonders how many factory jobs PG has had to reject due to this basic simple lack of planning (ie fiberboard for one)."

Chadermando, if that is the proposed plant I am thinking of, the one Ainsworth had(has?) planned, that problem lies primarily with Ainsworth's financial ability to build a palnt at this time. They bid on a timber license, got it, and may not be able to produce. They have till 2008 I believe, without checking back. Someone else on here may know it off the top of their head.

So, why are beetle killed trees not being harvested? Many reasons. That is one of them. Then again, the normal market cannot abosorb that product. We can create the capacity for a short term. But we have to have salespeople in place who can sell it, and they have to sell it on the basis of being able to supply only for a short period, say 10 years, then they are SOL.

I think the general public really does not see the big picture of the MPB consequences. Mr. Hill and the other guy need some education as well, I think, so that they can sell the idea to the guy in Newfoundland who got money from the feds when the Cod fisheries were shut down. Basically that is what they said when they said that the rest of Canadians need input here.

I'm rooting for the Pine Beetle... may it cross the Rockies and beyond.

The European culture: "We rule the entire Earth and will never allow anything to get in the way of our selfishness and greed... nature itself will be destroyed if need be."

Look at all the postings here..."money, money, money..." Not a single word about what kind of world we will pass on to our children.

Humanity will get what it deserves. Don't cry when very serious problems start showing up with more and more frequency: Salmon decline, flooding, species extinction, etc. Hope your SUV and ATV were worth it all.

Owl wrong fiberboard plant. I was referring to the Canfor one from a decade ago that was to be built in the BCR Industrial site and provide 400 jobs to the city of Prince George. It was ultimately cancelled because of concerns for its impact on the air-shed if located at that location. The city did not have a back-up plan nor location outside of the sensitive air-shed that had the infrastructure in place to accept a project like that without the major air-shed concerns.

Quesnel swallowed the pollution and Grand Prarrie, Fort St John planned for it and they got the plants and the jobs.

End result PG lost 400+ jobs and sent the message that this city was not open for business for at least a decade, because we will not build an industrial site in a location outside of the sensitive air-shed and we will not allow new industrial polluters to locate in our current over abused sensitive air-shed.

It all comes down to planning. Had we had an industrial site NorthEast of town that project would have gone ahead and signalled we were open for many more projects.

Ditto for the economic savour of bio-fuels. We still have not learned the lesson of ten years ago much less 40 years ago. We as a city are blind with no cloths pissing into the wind and complaining about getting wet. End result our economy goes backwards, and our health environment isn't much further behind the economy. That is not a recipe for success with the relocations and dwindling population telling the true story.

Of course our successive city councils over the years will tell you nothing is wrong look the other way, we created 12 new call center jobs so the economy is on fire and go out and pay 250% more for your home than it is worth with current fundamentals. Head back into the sand.

Time Will Tell

PS I thought the conservative were going to have a plan to clean up the airshed?

Also Owl it is interesting that Ainsworth had the smarts to by-pass our city council in their dealing with their proposed plant. Obviously they did the homework our city would not do and decided on their own that locating out in the NorthEast of the city would be their ideal location, industrial park or not.

This location was smart on their part because:
A)It is out of the sensitive air-shed.
B)It is very close to an unused BC Hydro substation designed for a aluminum smelter that never went ahead.
C)They can avoid the useless politicians of PG while still doing business in our community. Meaning when thing are ready to gear up they will not have much standing in the way.

I bet this Ainsworth project would be much more of a go if our city had the inclination to promote an industrial park out in that direction thereby reducing some of the cost of new industry coming to town and locating out that way on their own. I bet we lose those 400 jobs as well because our politicians are too clueless to see this and are stuck in the planning of 40-years ago.

We will likely miss this oportunity and send another message that yes indeed PG is closed to business for another 10 years unless you want to pollute in our sensitive airshed and deal on your own with the public in this regard.

400 jobs is no small carrot. Obviously air quality is a national issue. Obviously PG needs re-investment in its industrial infrastrucutre to compete in tomorrows economy. Obvioulsy our politicians are asleep at the wheel or pre-occupied with their own travel plans to do what is right at this time to take PG to the next level.

I think its great that Grande Prairie, Ft St John, Quesnel, Vanderhoof, etc; are getting some of these plants, and getting the jobs and revenue. What makes Prince George think they are entitled to the Elevator while the rest of the Region gets the Shaft.

The available logs are getting further and further away from Prince George and in the not to distant future the major mills will be located in Vanderhoof, Houston, Stewart, etc; it makes more economic sense to take the mill to the trees than to take the trees to the mill.

Its interesting that common sense tells us that you cannot elect a Government in Canada without getting major support from Ontario and Quebec. As soon as the Conservatives start to pour some money into these areas to try and get the votes it needs to form a Majority Government some people in the West start to complain.

What would you have the Conservatives do? Tell Ontario and Quebec to go to Hell, lose the Election, and let the Liberals and NDP run the Country again? Thats what it sounds like to me.

As far as the Pine Beetle trees go., those trees that are not logged off in the next 5/8 years will rot where they stand, burn in forest fires etc; and that will be the end of the **Great Pine Beetle Epidemic** in this part of the country.

Some of this beetle kill is over 8 years old already, and as far as I know there has been no new capacity built anywhere in the Province to harvast this wood. My guess is that we will get more of the same for the next 5 years, and after that it will be a dead issue. (No pun intended)

Palopu, why not have a country that is governed based on some sort of moral standard rather than a gamblers gamble between blackmail and bribery? Makes more sense to me.
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Funny how you complain about every single dollar that could possiby be spent in PG, federal, provincial, and civic....
Yet, using our tax dollars for the conservatives to buy votes in Quebec is a 'common sense' investment. "What would you have the conservatives do?"
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That line of thinking sounds like the Dick Harris way of winning elections? It says a lot about the people of PG and what we get for our vote.

The following is the link to another article which gives some pretty astonishing numbers as to how much Quebec receives from the rest of Canada in transfer payments. The article is written by Greg Weston of the Ottawa Sun. This guy is a very reputable journalist. I encourage everyone to spend a few minutes and read it.


http://ottsun.canoe.ca/News/Columnists/Weston_Greg/2007/03/25/3828094.html

"Owl wrong fiberboard plant."

The one you refer to was more accurately described as MDF - Medium Density Fibreboard.

A wood feedstock board plant employing 400 people simply does not exist in this part of the world.

Based on the report for the Canfor MDF plant proposal prepared by Cirrus, page 148, indicates that the “total on-site operating employment will amount to 143 people”

At the time there was a plant proposed for Williams Lake, Quesnel, and three in PG including one at Northwood. It was all driven by the need to get rid of the products previously burned in beehive burners and not driven by the marketplace.

By the time the Quesnel plant was built there was an oversupply in the world. I have it under good authority that the Canfor project manager was very happy that they did not build the plant. They would have had a hard time selling the product.

The plants in the north east were not MDF plants.

Here is an example of a very environmentally friendly plant in California built 4 years or so later using Forintek developed technology which meant no urea formaldehyde would be used.

http://www.forestnet.com/archives/Nov_99/fibre_board.htm

It employed 70+ people. It also declared bankruptcy in 2002:

http://www.recyclingtoday.com/news/news.asp?ID=1811&SubCatID=29&CatID=7

The PG plant was not cancelled due to concern for the airshed. It was given an air permit. It was appealed twice.

The second appeal put very tough restrictions on the proposed second phase – it could not be built unless the predictions of the first phase effects on the airshed would be proven in the field. That made it very risky.

In addition, by that time it became apparent that the bottom had dropped out of the MDF market. Canfor was actually very lucky that the permits were appealed, and they stated so.

The pant would have put 470 tonnes of particulate into the air which was approximately the same as the beehive burners in the BCR which were to be shut down were creating. The region would have gained, PG would have stayed the same.

What is not generally known is that the PG Environmental Advisory Committee of the day advised Council that they were not in favour of the project in a document to City Council dated June 7, 1995

Owl, I was counting the in bush jobs as well in coming up with the 400 jobs number. I think thats what Ainsworth said thier proposed plant would employ between the plant and the loggers.

Some weighted factor has to be used to account for the resource extraction jobs. I figured 1-to-1 as a loose kind of rule based somewhat on the saw mill side. This being a secondary product it would likely be a lower ratio.

I think the Grand Prarrie plant employs 400 total between plant and the bush.

Counting bush jobs is spinning the number. We have a total annual allowable cut which has only been increased for a short while due to the mountain pine beetle.

The annual allowable cut (remember that companies have to actually cut that during a 5 year window, otherwise they could loose their license or someone else can go in and cut it) generates the bush jobs.

Plants simply are the ones that use the feedstock. When a new plant is built, other plants will have to downsize or shut down. In fact, because of that I can argue that new plants are more efficient than old plants and that when new plants come in old plants shut down, thus the net effect is fewer manufacturing jobs, not more.

And that argument has been shown over and over again over the past 100 years. We loose forestry jobs every decade, and that is one of the reasons why.

The Ainsworths of this world look at the world from their narrow point of view, not with the big picture in mind. The general population, especially politicians, fall for it over and over.

Look at how many forestry jobs there were in PG and region in 1970, and look at them now. You will find a considerable drop coupled with change in technology.

Then we have plants, such as MDF plants and oreinted strandboard plants, and pellet plants which fall into a different category.

They use waste products. So, no new bush jobs. However, rather than burning the stuff and now burning it and using the energy, we create more jobs in making a product. As long as such plants cause the shut down of the rest of the beehive burners that still exist, and start to shut down cogen facilities (not likely unless the are loosing money) the yalso are vying for feedstock alrady used elsewhere and are simply moving jobs from one plant ot another plant, even from one region to anotehr region and, at most, generating trcuking jobs and considerable diesel generated pollution and road deterioration in the process.

Here are some provincial stats for the direct forestry industry since 1990.

1. In 2005, there were 21,600 people working in this industry, down 18% from 26,300 in 1990.
2. The relative importance of forestry and logging has declined since 1990. The industry currently employs about 1% of BC's workers, down from just under 2% at the beginning of the 1990s. Its share of total GDP has fallen from 4% to 3% during this period.
3. The value of forest product exports has remained stable since the mid-1990s. However, exports of other commodities have increased substantially more, and forest products accounted for just 39% of the total value of exports in 2005. That's down from 60% or more twenty years ago.
4. A graph included in the link below shows that by 2014 the total employed is expected to increase to 1.2% of BC workers but that the same time that it will drop to 2.5% contribution of the GDP.

http://www.guidetobceconomy.org/major_industries/foresty.htm

Resulting recommendation ….. short term – grab as many forestry jobs as possible while making a major push into picking up the industries that are producing the increase in exports as well as a major push into import replacement.