A northeastern B.C. Mayor is hopeful that expanded forest access in the area will help bring the forest industry back to the area.

A recent announcement by the province to increase the amount of timber available to be cut in the Fort Nelson area has the Gary Foster hoping to re-launch the forestry sector. The region’s annual allowable cut is being increased by almost 60 per cent. The amount of timber available for harvest will total almost 2.6 million cubic metres, up from just over 1.6 million. The province also announced that it would be converting close to 200,000 hectares of Crown land into B.C.’s largest community forest and that it will be jointly managed by the Fort Nelson First Nation and the Northern Rockies Regional Municipality.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show Foster says it’s good news in a sea of bad news when it comes to forestry in BC.”With this new allowable annual cut we have more than enough wood in our area to support a panel plant or even a small dimensional plant as well. So right at the moment, Fort Nelson’s been suffering here for the past six years with the economic decline and we feel we are just on the edge of changing that.”

Foster says this could have huge impact on the local economy. “There’s been a renewed interest because the amount lumber, or the amount of fibre that’s available here has caused larger players to contact us and express interest in the amount of fibre…. With a viable mill, even 300 or 400 jobs in Fort Nelson would make a huge difference. That would be 10% of the population currently in Fort Nelson. So that would be a tremendous lift to the economy.”

Foster says they have been and will continue to lobby industry to open up shop in the Fort Nelson area and hopes to have something in place by early 2020. He hopes to have something secured by the end of March.