The B.C. government has now opened an online portal for job placement and early-retirement funding for workers displaced from mill closures and curtailments in the Interior.

The portal, available here, will help workers access support programs and allow applications to be sent in for retirement bridge funding according to the province. Contractors can also bid on short-term contracts for work happening in areas that have been “directly impacted by a permanent or indefinite mill closure.” A list of initial projects available to bid on can be found here.

As Forest Minister Doug Donaldson said last month, the province reiterates that job placement offices will be opening soon in Clearwater, 100 Mile House, Fort St. James, Fort St. John and Mackenzie. The province is spending $2 million to open those offices, with money part of the $69-million-dollar reallocation of funds from the Rural Dividend Program for forest relief in the Interior.

More than 3,000 direct jobs have been lost in B.C.’s Interior this calendar year because of four permanent mill closures and at least 13 mill curtailments.