The area director in Vavenby says she thinks the former mill property in town could soon be sold now that it’s owner has one other deal done.

Canfor’s $60-million-dollar forest tenure transfer to Interfor was approved last week, and Carol Schaffer says that could be good news for the timeline for Canfor to sell its mill property.

“I think it is very good news, because if the people put some sort of industry in there it will create jobs for Clearwater and Vavenby. Maybe not as many as Canfor did, but depending what goes in there it could create some jobs for our area.”

Schaffer says there is an interested buyer in the property, and she says negotiation was likely held up while Canfor dealt with its tenure transfer over recent months.

If the property is sold, there would be a covenant that a sawmill will not be able to operate there.

Schaffer also says it’s her understanding that all of the good logs cut by Interfor in the North Thompson will go to its mill in Adams Lake.

“Instead of the tenure going to Prince George or something, out of our area, at least it’s close to our area. And Interfor has said that they can take on some of our truckers and our loggers.”

According to Chase CAO Joni Heinrich, the deal is good news for the Adams Lake sawmill which is within Chase boundaries.

Speaking on The Jeff Andreas Show, she says it can be difficult to do municipal planning when you don’t know what your tax base fully looks like.

“The province does set the rate for taxation that we can collect from that mill. But definitely being a really small community with not a huge tax base, that additional tax revenue is very, very beneficial to our community.”

Heinrich says the unknown had caused some to struggle as between 60 and 70 people live in Chase and work at that mill.

– with files from Jeff Andreas