While Tolko’s shutdown of its Quesnel mill is not good news for the community the mayor says this is something they have been preparing for, for a while.

Bob Simpson says the writing has been on the wall for a while now noting Tolko closed the sawmill indefinitely last year giving the community and impacted families some lead time.

“From a community perspective we have been planning for this as a council over the last two terms. We have a pretty aggressive future forestry think tank initiative underway to maximize any of the jobs we do get from the forest sector plus a diversification strategy. Fortunately we have a provincial government that is making record levels of investments in communities like ours.”

Simpson says the Tolko closure is hitting the worker’s families hard but most saw the writing on the wall.

“For the most part all of those individuals directly impacted were really aware this was going to happen. Many of them had begun to put plans in place and looking at alternate work opportunities. Some have been going through retraining. That long lead time they have had within the mill itself has helped a lot of the families.”

Simpson says since 2014 Quesnel has made some pretty dramatic changes on financing, investment, and strategic planning to diversify its economy, re-brand, and prepare for the apparent woes in forestry.

He says this week the community will work with the province on next steps including on the indirect impacts beyond the mill workers themselves.