The leader of the BC Liberals has put pen to paper demanding the Premier take action to help a forestry sector in crisis after sawmill closures, curtailments, and cut backs.
Andrew Wilkinson wants the province to engage with communities and offer every support they can including employment assistance and pots of funding to help them get jobs.
And that is not all.
“The John Horgan government can do three things right away. It can do reduce the operating costs by giving them a break on carbon tax for forestry operations that is number one. Number two the stumpage rates need to be reviewed right away not based on $600 a thousand board feet but on the current price more like $360. Third John Horgan went down to Washington DC with great fanfare and he was going to bring back a solution to the softwood lumber dispute and nothing has happened.”
Trade negotiations over things like the softwood lumber deal are federal jurisdiction.
Wilkinson says there is too much of a lag in setting stumpage fees, which he says are too high for the current market.
He says the Liberals also want the province to engage with the federal government to help communities sideswiped by sawmills closing, being curtailed, or are suspending operations.
Wilkinson also wants an all party competitiveness committee struck to look at short and long term forestry solutions.
The letter in full is below.