The BC Government has announced a new fund, set to help create “thousands” of sustainable and ‘good-paying’ jobs to British Columbia.

Premier David Eby says the province will put $90 Million over three years into the new BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund, aimed at helping to build resilient economies. He says the fund will focus on areas experiencing economic impacts from changes in the forestry sector.

Eby says this new fund will help support high-value industrial and manufacturing projects in rural and remote indigenous communities across BC.

“Our whole province benefits when local workers and their families can build good lives in the rural communities they call home,” he said. “The money is going to go where it is needed most, to areas that have experienced economic impacts from changes to the forestry sector for example.”

Eby, announced the new fund Tuesday afternoon in Prince George’s following word from Canfor Pulp Products last week that it was closing the pulp line at its mill in the community there, cutting 200 jobs by the end of this year.

“We will be standing with them and supporting them through this incredibly difficult time for them and their families. The provincial government is there for them, we will be reaching out to Canfor to have similar conversations with them.”

He says the fund will support established for-profit organizations to plan and launch shovel-ready projects, with the goal of creating sustainable and secure jobs in rural BC.

“Whether it is a forestry company seeking new equipment to make mass timber products, or setting up a new bioplastics or bio fuel facility in a rural community. We want to jump-start these projects.”

The money is on top of the $185 Million currently budgeted for support to offset economic impacts from a changing forestry industry, which Eby says “has never been under greater stress.”

He says the province needs a resilient forest industry.

– With Files From The Canadian Press