Unfortunatly, Mr Campbell and his band (its') could give two hoots about anything in the north, their focus is on the Lower Mainland and the 2010 Olympics end of story.

I think your right Acrider. If only the letter had made mention of the need for the town to survive because of the Botswana down hill ski jumper training there for the Olympics... then the letter might have made it to the premiers desk and a task force formed.

Contact CTV in Vancouver and get them up there in McKenzie.

Hey when a company shuts down for market reasons, or financial troubles, what does it have to do with Gordon Campbell? You guys sure dont understand business. Its not the Liberals fault. But blame someone if you must.
Also, I am not aware of any log exports in Mckenzie. Am I missing something here.
This problem starts with the fact that there is no market from the USA.Blame them.

Good, and a professional letter. Not a whinney letter.

Perhaps what WOULD get "your" governments' attention might be for the people of Mackenzie to simply STOP paying their taxes. All of them. GST, 7% Sales Tax, Property Tax, the works. The old cry of "No taxation without representation" may be what it takes to force the issue of providing these people a liveable income when one is no longer available from their employment.

Surely those people who organize rallies could figure out that if we all work nearly six and a half months of the year on average now just to pay all the taxes collected from us by government, a complete cessation of taxpaying on the part of Mackenzie's residents might get the attention of the powers-that-be.

It would take a united front, of course, to ever make it work. But considering the situation, if there's 97% unemployment there now, what is there to lose?

What could the government do to counter such a move? Nothing that would be as cost effective as providing a liveable income to Mackenzie's citizens until the mills are profitable to run again.

It's not the governments fault for the market downturn, but they have dropped the ball when it comes to alternative employment that could be generated from beetle wood opportunities. ie.Bio-fuel and power generation. Our government seems to spend millions on studies, but the shovel never hits the dirt. Come on Gordon---Lets start some of these projects A.S.A.P. Also lets speed up the process on developing new mines. It takes far too long to get through the approval process. There is lots of opportunity out there for employment if the government would get their head out of their ass.

I agree with onemansthoughts - it's not the fault of our provincial gov't that the town's industries have shut down. Gov't policy will affect whether a large industry can make a go of it or not, but global influence (which does affect gov't policy) is the culprit here. A letter writing campaign (and well written letters like this one from Roxanne in MacKenzie should have the most impact) will cause some policy changes, but its not something that happens overnight.

And I don't think it'll happen soon enough for a lot of the beleaguered folks living in resource based towns here in the North.

We're all of us affected by the market-based economy we labour in. Politicians (and bureaucrats) can tinker a bit with policy, sometimes with some effect (note the rise and fall of value of US & Can $$$), but basic core changes have to be made to the systems we are slaves to.

And I can have opinions about these things (as we all do), but that opinion is based only on what I've read or heard from pundits in the media (be it completely wrong, slightly incorrect, or spot-on, they've got their message out), so I'm not going to provide any solutions, because I don't have the knowledge/education in this field.

If in a 6 month period the lower mainland lost even 20% of its employment you don't think the the government would be all over that and offering up money and programs to people ? Well Mackenzie is now in the high 80% for job losses and basically next to nothing for them. This is a classic case of out of sight, out of mind. No one in Victoria even knows how to drive to Mackenzie and therefore doesn't want to give attention to it. Besides not like it will affect any of them from being elected this fall.

Interesting that when the economy is up the Campbell supporters always take credit but when things go sour it's suddenly a market downturn. When will the public stop listening to governments who claim to be able to affect the economy with their policies and legislation? Campbell's influence over the strong economy had more to do with timing than any policy. I remember during the last election, seeing a young man with a sign that read "When the N.D.P. are in power, my father does not work." I wonder what his sign says now as his father is once again not working only this time his job will be gone for good, like the logs being exported to the U.S.

Although the province can't control market prices in the states, they do set up up forest policy. The policy of the province and the crappy softwood deal the feds shoved down our throats to provide "certainty" in the industry have done nothing to help. Provincial policy helps the forestry giants and screws any independents trying to access fibre. While the softwood deal gave the states a billion to further cripple our industry.
These forest corps don't need favours. We need policy that helps smaller operators etc.
The big players are only efficient because of their scale. they can make demands a small operator would never dream of from contractors, suppliers etc. The waste from these companies is hidden by the savings in the concessions they get from everyone. When was the last time you heard "Canfor had record profits this month so we're asking all the suppliers to step up and increase their prices, cause we're flush with money". These large companies are like any other bureaucracy slow to make decisions and inefficient operators.

We need policy to help other players get into the field.

We need policy

How about a letter to Canfor and ask them to share some of their past profits with those that are now unemployed.

What Campbell could do is create legislation that profits must be set asside for emplyees in the event of some rainy days. As it stands now the employer get all the breaks to make a profit and tho hell with those who do the work.

Cheers

Good post govsux, yes we do need help for other players to get into the field, before the big corporations invaided Mackenzie we had are ups and downs, but nothing to this extreme. This last sham that Canfor just pulled has nothing to do with the price of lumber or anything else, but to try and get out of the wood chip agreement to supply the pulp mill here with chips. The Abitibi closeure was to take paper off the market to increase the prices. When the going is good the corporations reap the benifits, but when the going gets tough and they are not making there millions they bail.

I got news for you, if we stopped exporting logs all those contractors whom are currently working harvesting them would be laid off, so be carefull what you wish for.

Well if it is only 3% of the logs being exported, it can't employee very many contractors, compared to the job losses we are facing now. So when you think of it a few loggers unemployeed, or whole communities being unemployeed.

Realitysetsin, I have a buddy working a processor down on the Island. He is on of maybe a half dozen working in the entire Province. Where are "all those contractors"
working? With state of the art technology
it takes very few workers to strip a forest clear. Compare that to the workers needed to manufacture that wood & you will
understand why people are passionate & upset about log exports, rightfully so.
It's time for Politicians to wake up.These are OUR resources, not Canfor's
or some other conglomerate.

I have lived in Mackenzie 32+ years and weathered several ups and downs here.

About the export of raw logs, I don't know if we actually export the raw logs out of country but they were definately trucked to PG and PG trucked to us. I know this for a fact because I am related to people who are employed by Canfor and out in the bush.

As far as it not being the government's fault, no not totally but they do have to take some blame for things like changing the policy of logs being tied to the mill etc. They also need to take blame for dragging their behinds on helping but I agree, Mr. Campbell is not directly to blame. It is not just the provincial government either it is also the federal government and the BIG forest companies such as Canfor that are to blame for rushing in to an agreement with the US to do with the export tax.

As far as the MARKET REASONS, OUTSIDE CONTRIBUTING FACTORS, UNION WAGES AND BENEFITS and the Canandian $. I am getting really sick and tired of those being used as an excuse. This is the same old whine I have heard for 32 years. These factors have always been there and always will be, sometimes more than others but still there.

Yes I will give the company(s) some give on the US housing market but you know even that has had it's soft spots in the past 32 years and has always been a contributing factor good or bad.

This particular Canfor mill was bragging 3 to 5 years ago about being one of the most efficienet (if not the most efficient) mill running. They had record production at minimal cost. WHAT WENT WRONG?????

Maybe instead of the same whine(s) they have used for years, blaming everyone and everything other than middle and upper management, Canfor should clean up their own back yard. I bet if they were to do a real cleaning where the right questions where being asked and the honest answers were given they would find that miss management was a very large contributor. Maybe if they had done that a year ago, Mackenzie wouldn't be in as dire straits as it is now and we would have at least one company still running.

Mr. Pattison needs to start looking at is just how much middle and upper management had to do with the resulting situation.

I live in the South Okanagan and I see a steady run of loaded logging and chip trucks heading across the border. I don't understand why, if there is a lack of demand for lumber in the U. S., then why do they need our logs,I wonder if they are turning them into chips.

I agree with Roxanne but I think there is more to this puzzle.
Yes, the logs should be attached to the area mills; they should not be leaving towns, provinces or the country for that matter. It is easier to sell a mill if it has timber to go with it. And what is stopping these mills from shipping the logs from here to a PG super mill – nothing but the price of fuel right now!
But this is just a small part of the issues that are facing the small communities. The bigger issue is that we are totally dependent on the one industry that our town(s) provide - Tumbler Ridge – it depended on the mines in their town - we all know what happened there when the market went down! When oil hits a low Ft. St. John gets it (not to the same point as us because they are bigger, but the oil job losses have a major effect on them). Any place that is dependant on the natural resource/economy is always sitting on a time bomb.
Things that save the bigger areas are:
1. The government - the more people the more votes.
2. Diversity so many opportunities for job creation because they are accessible to everything – shipping, companies, accessibility to higher technology and so on.
These are just a couple of the things that help them survive.
What should be getting talked about for these smaller communities instead of putting us in the same position that we are in now, are more secure jobs! Examples to think about:
Does the government taxation center have to be in Surry – does it really require being in a big area? Why not look at moving it to a smaller community or some of the other government offices that in reality only have telephone communications with people – not only will it create jobs here, but will also help us grow because more people will be tempted to move here.
We have lots of medical facility’s around that will always require products – buckets for needle to be discarded in (just an example), why are we not looking at more secure manufacturing jobs? Why are we sending raw products out to different areas, why can’t we manufacture them in Canada’s small communities? Lets look at those issues!
Lots of Sr. Citizens seem to be moving to Mackenzie lately – in fairness our housing market is cheaper, how about a Sr. Place, look at Florida and how they cater to the Senior Citizens, this has the ability to create lots of service jobs, although seasonal (as from what I am hearing these seniors are snow-birds) they open other opportunities.
These jobs are far more secure then anything we have right now or are looking at for the future.
Tourism can be a great opportunity, but if the economy is down so is tourism – but it does hold some doors open during good times, maybe we should be looking at opening and developing some of our area lakes – people build vacation packages and they live in those homes for some of the seasons – again allows the ability to create and support service jobs as well as getting our town to be known as a possible resort community. There are a lot of small towns that use the summer months to supplement their towns.
Mackenzie (as well as some of the other communities) should be trying to focus on things to encourage a stable environment that will always be around – one of the things holding it back is lack of transportation abilities – cost is high with that. Maybe a larger airport-landing strip is needed, Prince Rupert along with a short cut across to Ft. St. James should be opening up a lot of opportunities. We should be asking ourselves “why is it that most manufacturers go to Ontario, is there something we should be looking at there and trying to get here?”
I don’t know what the fix is for all the small communities, but I do know that we can’t keep putting ourselves in a situation that keeps us in a state of insecurity, we need to have some more stable, secure employment as well. So people please start looking at things that are larger then just the mills, start asking and demanding other opportunities along with your letters to the Premier. Personally I love living in Mackenzie and have no desire to move, but I also don’t want to be in this situation again 10 years from now either – we’ll just get out of debt to go right back into it again!

For some reason some one has confused raw log exports (log exports) to different countries - mostly the US, then Japan -then Korea and some to China (currently main barriers to export to China)- to send logs to different communites within BC- most of the logs sent out of the Northern Communties are not being exported to different countries but being consumed by other mills within BC- yes tie the local wood in Northern communties to local mills but do not under any circumtances compare the southern interior, vancouver island and other geographic areas in BC. Also while 94% of the wood in BC is Crown and owned by the people- 4% is Private (where I work) and is not owned by the "people" but rather by the land owner.

Mr. cambell is proud of his new arbon tax. So if he doubled or tripled his carbon tax on any raw logs not procesed in the forest district they are harvested in.The only way you are going to get Cambells attention is give him something that will make him look good or bad. This can be a chest pownder for his insane tax and winner for all the small towns nearest the logs.

Dogs--What is different about a coastal community than a northern community aside from where YOU export your logs?
Is it less important to an islander to have no local processing?
Now that most coastal mills have been torn down-- sent to china as scrap iron, what exactly will happen when prices rise--when demand rises? Remember there is little local capacity left and will something be rebuilt to operate on the island?
Nothing will be built when there is no security of resources, regardless of whether it is--or usually profitable.
Aside from your self interests and risk free exploitation of private landowners--you are actually advocating against better prices made possible by more markets--local markets. This approach of your design makes export the only market instead of the additional and overflow market.
For the people who say that there is no log exports from northern BC....just wait
and see what happens when prices rise.
It won't be a matter of moving from Mackenzie to PG--try moving to korea or china to find a mill job.

A recall campaign for Pat Bell would get Gordons attention because that is the last thing he needs going into an election that would make him premier for the olympic games he is so fond of. A recall campaign by a town that has lost all its industry as a result of liberal forest tenure and crown asset privatization policy would get the attention of the 604 and might be a tipping point that enables them to reign in the liberals next election.

Let's take a cue from our aboriginal brothers; road blockades. Just kidding of course. Anytime NON aboriginals try something like that, they are quickly thrown in jail (and probably used for taser practice, for good measure!)
The government is not responsible for people who are willing to work for a living and pay taxes, but they are VERY responsible for those who choose not to contribute their sweat to the greater good (work and pay taxes) I am referring to the dole and to pogey. There is so much abuse of these two institutions that it makes me sick. It seems we are slipping down to become a social welfare type of society. I do not believe the government owes me a living, whether it be from welfare, or bail outs for big business to "save the jobs" Neither one of those concepts are fair to the average honest hardworking taxpaying citizen.
metalman.

Certainly lots of interesting comments..But here is what I would like to know..Why is it that just 3 1/2 short years ago Canfor Mackenzie could boast about being the "most efficienet (if not the most efficient) mill running. They had record production at minimal cost. WHAT WENT WRONG?????" to quote mackenzieite. A new general manager came to town. Why did the big wigs at Canfor allow this man and his "team of merry men" to run the Mackenzie operation so far into the ground before they removed him and team???

Why is it that they are so willing to let the so called managers continue to make these mistakes at the costs of all the employees?

Now that the Board of Directors has found a GM that was willing to take on the huge task of trying to "go forward" and make this mill productive again do they only allow 6 months?

Why oh Why did all the employees ( both staff and hourly) Bust a hump to get things going the way they did. This Mackenzie Canfor Mill was making measurable progress each and every week because they finally had some proper direction and somebody that knew what he was doing, but he's only allowed 6 months to clean up the bloody mess that the BOD allowed to go on for more than 3 years.

Market problems my foot!!! Most of the problems in Mackenzie are because they had an idiot General Manager that was so far in over his head he could not see up!! and the money hungry profit driven board at Canfor allowed this man to remain in his position for 3 full years.

Am I bitter? you bet I am. I hold that entire board responsible for not making a decision earlier on the value of it's General Manager...it was his decision or lack of that ran a high efficieny, money making mill into the ground and now we the employees have to pay for his great big severance package.

Did the board not see the writing on the wall (This was not the first mill that the GM had the pleasure of closing down) Now we have no jobs and the new General Manager who was given just 6 short months to perform a miracle has the pleasure of sending all the hard working employees home and he has to deal with all the anger and upset.

I would like to ask the Board of Directors at Canfor to explain this. Why do you get 3 years to run a mill in to the ground but only 6 months to pull it out???

Just a few thoughts

Right on giterdun!
What's up with this slow process in getting things moving in this Province? You can imagine what kind of shape we'll be in if this head up the ass government doesn't take action now on something other than the 2010 Olympics!