The annual Union of B.C. Municipalities convention is usually a non-event for cosmopolitan Vancouver. A little more downtown congestion added to the cruise ship traffic, an extra bump in already high hotel prices, more demand for taxis.
ItB次元官网网址檚 usually a yawner for the city media too, lots of rural problems and dry financial discussions. That changed briefly last week, as a convoy of hundreds of logging trucks descended on the downtown convention centre, from as far north as Prince George and down through the Cariboo and Okanagan-Similkameen. They honked and rolled for hours, getting brief attention from TV cameras.
The industry doesnB次元官网网址檛 seem very organized, one urban observer said. I replied that B次元官网网址渢he industryB次元官网网址� in this case is out-of-work independent contractors spending hundreds of dollars they need for their next truck payment on fuel to stage the demonstration. With Premier John Horgan and his entire cabinet in town, they went for it.
The forest industry crisis was the talk of the convention, as small-town mayors and councillors arrived knowing the province had suspended a $25 million B次元官网网址渞ural dividendB次元官网网址� grant program to fund relief for Interior communities that have lost their mills. The money is to bridge older workers to retirement and retrain others, as well as give grants to Quesnel, Chasm, Vavenby and Fort St. James to offer assistance.
GovernmentB次元官网网址檚 response to a wave of sawmill and logging layoffs has been slow and clumsy, capped by HorganB次元官网网址檚 comments to reporters after his convention-closing speech. He compared community leaders wanting the rural fund reinstated to kids who B次元官网网址渨ant everything right now.B次元官网网址�
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The $25 million was for small grants to diversify rural economies, many in towns that lost their forest employment a while ago. No example is more poignant than Port McNeill and its neighbouring villages. You donB次元官网网址檛 have to explain to Winter Harbour and other North Island communities what itB次元官网网址檚 like to lose a once-vibrant economy.
Port McNeill Mayor Gaby Wickstrom says her townB次元官网网址檚 grant application was a mere $10,000 to spruce up the downtown. She also serves on the board of Mount Waddington Regional District, which had one of the hundreds of B次元官网网址渞ural dividendB次元官网网址� applications awaiting approval. Theirs was around $200,000 for a non-profit society to run its B次元官网网址渇undamentals of forestryB次元官网网址� project.
That would pay for a staffer to recruit people to move to the North Island. B次元官网网址淣ot just workers, bringing people to our region, the quality of life, why to live here, why to invest here, that kind of thing,B次元官网网址� Wickstrom told me. B次元官网网址淧ort Alice had an application in as well, for some signage. TheyB次元官网网址檙e trying to reinvent themselves after the mill closure.B次元官网网址�
The long-dormant pulp mill there was officially shuttered in February, its small maintenance crew laid off.
The NDP government has looked desperate on the forest crisis, suspending its caribou protection plan, appointing an apologist MLA to go on yet another listening tour, and then this horribly short-sighted cancellation of a modest diversification program.
And while $25 million provides a hand up for some little towns, itB次元官网网址檚 a drop in the bucket for Finance Minister Carole James. She just moved $300 million from contingency funds, basically an unused wildfire budget that came in handy to keep the province out of red ink for this year.
ThereB次元官网网址檚 still more than $400 million in contingency this year, but Horgan confirmed that all ministries are looking for cuts. Their big inherited surplus has been spent.
Tom Fletcher is B.C. legislature reporter and columnist for Black Press Media. Email: tfletcher@blackpress.ca
tfletcher@blackpress.ca
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