BC’s Parliamentary Secretary for Forestry says there have been some conversations with Federal officials over the forestry crisis.

Ravi Kahlon says he hopes the issue moves from conversation to concrete plans soon.

In fact, he’s hoping to see something before this fall’s Federal Election.

“We made that clear to [Natural Resources] Minister [Amarjeet] Sohi and the rest of the team and I think they understand the urgency of it, and Minister [Doug] Donaldson has been clear,”Kahlon said. “If this was Oshawa losing jobs or if this was Quebec losing jobs, how fast they would be reacting? And we expect that their reaction would be just as quick.”

Asked if the government considers the loss of 4,000 forestry jobs a crisis, Kahlon says it didn’t matter how you define it, noting it’s a major issue for the affected communities.

“It’s a difficult conversation talking to workers about how they are transitioning with their families and what they are going to do,” he said. “So you can call it whatever you want, our reaction is the same. We have got all the ministry’s working on this.”

Kahlon speaking on NL Newsday, after a request for Federal help from minister Doug Donaldson to Natural Resources Minster Amarjeet Sohi.

“The actual forests minister, Doug Donaldson, has been virtually absent during the crisis and for communities like Vanderhoof, Houston, Prince George, Fort St. John or Bear Lake to be abruptly written-off by the minister’s underling is frankly unacceptable,” said BC Liberal forestry critic John Rustad, in a statement.

“Premier Horgan hand-picked his partisan hack Mr. Kahlon to launch a public relations campaign on behalf of an incompetent minister who is literally missing-in-action.”

The Liberals are also accusing Minister Donaldson of creating market uncertainty by sending mixed signals about stumpage fees.