Arrow Transportation says it’s getting about 10 per cent of its wood right now in Kamloops because of a funding boost of just over $3 million.

Regional manager Kevin Gayfer says that provincial funding – and with it being able to acquire waste wood that gets turned into chips – has allowed Arrow to double its production in Kamloops in the past year.

“The funding, we have two more years. So we’re planning this year on consuming about 560,000 cubic metres, which would be about 10,000 truck loads. So that funding is pretty critical for helping us to do that. Our plan is to do that for the two years that funding exists and take it from there.”

Gayfer says he hopes that economics in forestry are better in two years, to allow the company to keep getting waste wood from some of the places it is now.

“Ninety per cent of the wood we’re getting now, we’re doing without the funding. So it’s just a matter of what the economics look like in two years. So right now, the economics don’t allow to get that extra 10 per cent that we’re getting through the funding. In two years, hopefully the economics of the forest industry are a little better and we can make that happen.”

Arrow is one the larger employers in Kamloops, with about 200 staff.