The Thompson Nicola Regional District is studying whether hemp processing could be done in the Kamloops area.
Area director in 70 Mile House Sally Watson says that study started last month, and says hemp processing could help fill a void in her area from the West Fraser sawmill closing down in Chasm.
“We don’t have all the numbers in to find out if we could do it here. There’s a lot of parts to that equation, do we have enough land to feed a processing unit? But the study has been started by the TNRD,” Watson says.
“If you can grow alfalfa, you can grow hemp. And we can grow alfalfa. And hemp has so many possibilities to it. You can make oriented strand board, hemp crete, textiles. You can make any kind of plastic with hemp. Anything to do with fiberglass you can do with hemp.”
Watson says she also visited an industrial hemp production plant in Vegreville and will bring information back from that to the TNRD board.
She says her region needs to push for new industry, and not just one.
“We have the railroad and we have the highway. There isn’t any reason why an industry couldn’t flourish in the Interior of B.C. far better than in the Lower Mainland, where land and taxes are so expensive. Up here your employees can actually afford to buy a home, if you pay them a decent wage.”
The closure of the Chasm sawmill earlier this month put 176 people out of work.