More than 200 Vancouver Island forest contractors and suppliers gathered at the B.C. legislature Wednesday to call for relief for an industry that has left them out of work for months.
Many have been idled by the United Steelworkers strike against Western Forest Products that has dragged on since July 1. Some contractors say the NDP governmentB次元官网网址檚 increased penalties for wood waste have made it too costly to operate, and provincial stumpage for Crown timber remains too high.
Bill Coates, a contractor from Port Alberni who organized the rally, emerged from a meeting with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson after people had waited outside for more than an hour.
Laid-off loggers gathering at
B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
B次元官网网址淲e came to Victoria to have our voices heard on very short notice, and we were heard,B次元官网网址� Coates told the crowd, who cheered and applauded speakers who told of family struggles as Christmas approaches. B次元官网网址淲hat weB次元官网网址檝e seen is our industry down and our personal taxes up, and we need to get back to work.B次元官网网址�
Mediator Vince Ready is scheduled to meet with the union and Western Forest Products management Thursday to deal with outstanding issues including shift schedule changes, long-term disability payments and drug and alcohol testing.
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Geoff Brown, also a contractor, said stumpage rates and harvesting restrictions have affected equipment suppliers, foresters and engineers as well as loggers.
B次元官网网址淭heyB次元官网网址檙e basically charging triple what the waste penalties were,B次元官网网址� Brown said. B次元官网网址淐osts have gone through the roof. We canB次元官网网址檛 operate.B次元官网网址�
The rally took place as Premier John Horgan and the NDP cabinet were wrapping up their weekly meeting. Speakers called for Horgan or any government representative to come out and speak with them, but they were disappointed.
B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson and forests critic John Rustad addressed the rally, calling for more government action. Rustad said the governmentB次元官网网址檚 refusal to change stumpage rate setting from the current quarterly system to monthly, to reflect lumber prices, ignores the fact that Alberta sets stumpage monthly without sparking protests from U.S. lumber producers.
forest critic speaks to rally of unemployed workers at
B次元官网网址� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)
In November, Cariboo-Chilcotin MLA Donna Barnett asked Donaldson about a letter to Finance Minister Carole James from Sigurdson Forest Products of Williams Lake, calling for a delay in stumpage payments. The company had just laid off 50 people, with 90 left working in its sawmill and planer, as it struggles with loss of timber from fire that caused it to miss the period of high lumber prices that preceded the current downturn.
B次元官网网址淲e currently owe approximately $4.6 million in outstanding stumpage,B次元官网网址� president Brian Sigurdson wrote.
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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