The mayor of Lillooet says local forestry will benefit largely from stabilization work at Ten Mile Slide on Highway 99.

Peter Busse says right now, logging trucks from northern B.C. have to go through Lytton to get to Lillooet, which is an extra two hours of driving.

“They do bring in product up Highway 12 from Lytton. It’s an extra cost. So when economies of scale are taken into consideration, that depends of the pricing they’re getting for their product. The sooner we get back to reducing their costs, the longer we can expect the mill to stay in business, obviously, which is price dependent.”

Busse says the local Aspen Planers mill hasn’t made any cuts, but he says logging trucks there are parked and will be through the winter.

“And that is a concern. And the indications are they won’t see any movement, unless something happens economically or politically, until the spring. It has a big impact in terms of our forestry business. Both from hauling and also cutting,” Busse says.

The second phase of work to stabilize the Ten Mile Slide site will start this fall, and will allow the section of highway to be expanded to two lanes with a guard rail put in place, and as a result will allow heavier trucks to use the route. The Ministry of Transport is spending $60 million altogether on the two-phase project.

“Phase two is most important and critical. We need the B-trains from the trucking to be able to bring wood into our plant here, and also to carry the product out. Also primarily groceries and deliveries of all sorts to become back to reasonable again,” Busse says.

(Photo: Aspen Planers)