A British Columbia lumber mill is calling out government inaction on challenges facing the forestry sector after having to cut 60 jobs.
On Tuesday, Sinclair Forest Products president Greg Stewart announced that an increasingly unaffordable market for log supply led the company to make the difficult decision to cut one of two shifts at the Vanderhood, B.C. mill.
“We are deeply sorry for the impact this decision will have on our employees, their families, and the community of Vanderhoof,” said Stewart.
“This shift-reduction is not an anomaly. The problems facing the forest industry in BC are significant, complex, and diverse. They require a cooperative collective response from all governments, First Nation titleholders, stakeholders, and forestry companies.”
The forestry industry in BC has been struggling with high log costs for years and in 2019 hundreds of logging trucks descended on Vancouver to protest a lack of government action on the issue.
“We are not asking for money, we didn’t come here for donations or anything. What we want is for our communities to keep their jobs,” said convoy organizer Frank Etchart at the time.
The announcement by Sinclair comes on the heels of similar layoffs in Chetwynds, Houston, Merritt and Prince George within the span of a few months.
According to Nechako Lakes MLA and Conservative Party of British Columbia leader John Rustad, the province needs to step up in securing forestry permits to solve the problem.
“This is wrong. No British Columbian should be losing their job because of the government dropping the ball,” said Rustad in a statement.
“Sadly, our BC NDP government seems to have forgotten the meaning of the term ‘workers movement’.”
Rustad accused the NDP government of overlooking rural and northern communities.
“Independent workers and union members — particularly workers in our natural resource industries — are being sold out by a government that is too focused on Downtown Victoria and Vancouver to care about issuing permits to keep British Columbia’s mills open in places like Vanderhoof, Houston, Chetwynd, Prince George, and many others all across BC,” said Rustad.
