BC’s Forestry Minister says is anticipating that the $69 million fund that was announced last month for interior forestry workers will roll out starting next week.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, Doug Donaldson says it will start by being able to direct the inquiries to specific pools and programs and actually announce some of the projects on the ground. “The part that my ministry is most focused on is the $15 million program for contractors in work around their communities in the bush. So putting contractors back to work. As well as the community grant program for communities that have experienced direct mill closures.”

Liberal Forestry Critic John Rustad says the NDP announced it without having any plan in terms of how the money would be spent or how people could access it. “The most disturbing piece of that is they actually took the rural dividend fund that a fund that many communities rely on to be able to develop services or support projects within their communities, they took that fund to be able to pay for this thing.” He says the $40 million in that fund for early retirement, that’s based on companies matching those funds and if companies are shutting down, he questions how they’ll be able to do that.

Donaldson says it was trying to provide supports prior to many of the mill closures that occurred in the summer, but it was found that more needed to be done. “And we understood that from travelling to the interior communities, my parliamentary secretary and myself, we understood that there were gaps that were needed and this is why we announced this $69 million program.”

Listen below for the full interviews with Rustad and Donaldson.

https://soundcloud.com/user-965676831/jeff-andreas-show-john-rustad-oct-11

https://soundcloud.com/user-965676831/jeff-andreas-show-doug-donaldson-oct-11