BC’s Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry says the $69-million forestry relief fund announced last year was well received.
Speaking on NL Newsday, Ravi Kahlon says there is still work to be done ahead, noting the government knows it hasn’t solved all the problems in B.C.’s forestry sector.
“I feel like we’ve found a place where we’ve been able to stabilize communities so that they’ve seen the losses, and we can’t avoid that, but we’ve stabilized them enough that they can now start thinking about how the diversify the economy? What do they do? How do they lure other industries in?” he said.
Kahlon says that pension agreements portion of the fund, has had over 500 people apply, and over 100 applications approved so far.
“We’ve seen also many workers who have opted for training opportunities and the employment centres that we’ve got created are interviewing every single worker that has been affected, and they are getting really good responses,” he said.
The goal – the government says – was to stabilize affected communities like Clearwater and Vavenby, that were expected to face the direct impacts of mill shut downs and curtailments.
“Obviously workers that work for contractors and then the spin-off small business jobs are a real concern for us. The Phase One I think was a real success, although it took a little bit longer than people would have wanted,” noted Kahlon.
“And now it is Phase Two, and things like where do we go from here? How do we get more value out of our fibre? And so those are the important conversations that are happening.”
Kahlon was speaking as he announced $9-million of a separate $60-million fund is being spent on fire mitigation work, of which the city of Kamloops will get $418,205 over three years.
As for new money moving ahead, the NDP’s 2020 budget has $13 million for ‘economic development and revitalization’ in the forestry sector. The province has not renewed the Rural Dividend Fund in 2020/2021, which last September was reallocated last September towards a the forestry relief fund.
However, Kahlon says there is other money available for rural communities to access, and he says government is redirecting applications to the money as it comes in.
