The mayor of Clearwater says time is ticking for a decision on a proposed forest tenure transfer in BC Interior.
Interfor is proposing to buy Canfor’s cutting rights in the North Thompson for $60-million, and Merlin Blackwell says that proposal has been on the Forest Minister’s desk for nearly three months.
“We’ve got a whole forest season for harvesting and planting that has to be planned out. Nobody knows who owns this tenure, who’s going to get what of what. Until we know that, plans are sort of half-baked at best,” he said.
“So we need this to happen, we need to move forward on this. Just for the health of everybody else and the mental health and financial stability of everybody else in this community.”
Canfor is looking to sell its cutting rights in the region after shutting down its mill in Vavenby now more than eight months ago.
“I’m really hoping we’re somewhere near resolution on that to get it back to the parties, so that we can move the rest of the forest workers forward,” Blackwell noted. “But I’m not hearing anything at this particular point.”
While on the NL Morning News, he also commented on the local job placement office that has opened for displaced forest workers.
“They’ve had to quit a little part-time job because they’ve had to stay out of the workforce for 18 months as part of getting that bridging to pension,” said Blackwell.
“But the help is starting to trickle in, as far as information and program matching and things like that. So we are making some progress there, yay.”