The mayor of Clearwater agrees with a Thompson-Nicola Regional District area director about trying to bring hemp processing to the area to offset job losses in mills.

Merlin Blackwell says hemp is a versatile product that can be produced with fibre that gets wasted after a tree is cut down.

“That’s one of those secondary products. Whether it be hemp; we had somebody come to town here and pitch something called torrified pellets, and what they basically need is all those willows that drive us nuts in our yard, by growing every year and you have to chop down.”

Blackwell was responding to similar comments made by TNRD area director Sally Watson, and says he agrees.

“That’s all that secondary wood product that we need out there. That’s all that pulp that Domtar makes and things like that. I think that’s where the big market is. And currently about 40 per cent of every tree we cut down goes into what used to be the waste pile… Sally’s vision for hemp there is exactly along those lines. That’s where it’s going to get used, because hemp is a very versatile product.”

The TNRD is currently studying whether hemp processing could be done in the Kamloops area.

Blackwell says 40 per cent of every tree cut down goes in the “waste pile,” which he says needs to change.