“We can assist workers in the meantime”: Donaldson speaks following latest announcement of Canfor closures, curtailments

PRINCE GEORGE — It seems the forestry sector could not avoid at least a few casualties as a result of COVID-19. This week, Canfor announced the permanent closure of its Isle Pierre sawmill and a couple of curtailments at Prince George Pulp and Paper and Intercontinental Pulp.

While an insufficient supply of economically viable timber, following the mountain pine beetle epidemic, is partially to blame, the major global economic downturn as a result of COVID-19 has played just as big a part.

“We can impact a lot of things but the market conditions that have been impacted by COVID-19 is something that we don’t have direct control over,” explained Doug Donaldson, Minister of Forests. “We can assist workers in the meantime and attempt to work with industry to lower costs so that it’s more viable financially for them to operate during these times.

“We’ve formed a committee with industry to look at log costs and factors under government control. Delivered log costs are something that’s concerned industry and we want to make sure that while people get a fair return on a publicly held asset, which is the forests of BC when it comes to the lumber industry, we also want to make sure of anything we can do to ensure those costs are reasonable and can be adjusted accordingly.”