BC’s Forests minister says the sun hasn’t set on the forestry sector industry despite several recent job losses and curtailments.
Doug Donaldson was asked if the sector is going through a crisis.
“I don’t typify it as a crisis but that certainly doesn’t downplay the impacts when you are faced with losing your job. I mean that’s a crisis within a family,” Donaldson said. “We know that there’s a transition coming.”
“We started the Interior renewal process. We’ve invited companies, local governments, First Nations, and labour to come to a table together led by major licensees to come up with solutions.”
While speaking on NL Newsday after recent job losses in Vavenby and Merritt this past week, Donaldson says despite the setbacks, forestry is still a vibrant part of the rural economy.
“Now we are seeing is a decrease in that fibre supply so in order to maintain and expand jobs, we have to be looking at higher value products along that value chain,” he added. “Becoming a leader in engineered wood and mass timber products and we see that being as a way to add value and jobs. So we’re looking for investment.”
He says the government is trying to make as much fibre available for specialty operations to produce those higher value products in the future, while also reducing waste during the harvesting stage.
“The second thing government can do is use resources to increase out marketing capabilities, and that’s what we are doing around mass timber products to be used in the rebuild of the new St. Paul’s Hospital and the rebuild of the Royal BC Museum and that’s to highlight domestic use and to spring board from that to getting into exterior markets.”
Donaldson also said the issues facing the forestry sector are not new, and he believes that not enough was done by previous governments to prepare communities for the future.