Local politicians gave B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson their loudest applause for his call to do more for the provinceB次元官网网址檚 struggling forest industry.

Speaking to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention Thursday, Wilkinson described the plight of logging truck drivers who drove from all over the B.C. Interior to circle the Vancouver convention centre demanding action from the provincial government. Their horn-blasting protest lasted for hours Wednesday, resulting in a brief meeting with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson.

Thanks Interior logging contractors for raising awareness on forest economy with truck convoy to downtown Vancouver. Working together building on our $69 million support program to address additional urgent measures and longer-term solutions that needed work years ago

B次元官网网址� Doug Donaldson (@DonaldsonDoug)

B次元官网网址淭hose people in those trucks are almost all contractors who owe something between $100,000 and $1 million to the bank, and they have no work,B次元官网网址� Wilkinson said. B次元官网网址淎nd many of them have told us theyB次元官网网址檝e had no work since May.B次元官网网址�

leader speaks to about effort of log truck drivers to get urban B.C. attention

B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)

Communities that have lost sawmill employment, such as Vavenby and Vanderhoof, have effectively been told B次元官网网址測ouB次元官网网址檙e expendable,B次元官网网址� Wilkinson said, adding that Donaldson recently said in a radio interview that people who are losing their jobs at Hammond Cedar in Maple Ridge can get a job on the Pattullo Bridge replacement project.

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Wilkinson said B.C.B次元官网网址檚 stumpage charges on Crown land logs are up to 10 times higher than in Alberta, contributing to the highest log costs in North America, and the forest industry is shifting there as a result. Protesting truckers also called for reduced stumpage, which Donaldson has warned is a provocation to the U.S. industry that has already imposed import duties of around 20 per cent on B.C. lumber.

Asked about that risk, Wilkinson told Black Press that government is about B次元官网网址渂est practices,B次元官网网址� and Alberta has out-competed B.C. with similar conditions.

B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e dealing with the same government in the U.S.A.,B次元官网网址� he said.

Wilkinson said the pain of rural communities was increased by $25 million that was B次元官网网址渟tolenB次元官网网址� from the provinceB次元官网网址檚 Rural Dividend fund to include in a $69 million retraining and retirement package for four Interior communities that have mills closing.

That money and much more has been diverted into the NDP governmentB次元官网网址檚 union-only public construction program, which has raised the cost of a short stretch of highway widening near Revelstoke by millions, Wilkinson said.

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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