By Cheryl Jahn

Forestry not a sunset industry

Dec 13, 2021 | 3:20 PM

PRINCE GEORGE – Thirty-three forest industry reps were interviewed by the City recently as part of its five-year strategy and the message overwhelmingly was that forestry is still alive and well.

“We heard that forestry is not a sunset industry,” says Melissa Barcellos, Manager of Economic Development. “It’s changing and we heard from those businesses and almost all of them acknowledge that it’s changing. They appreciate why and they’re okay with that.”

But it isn’t an industry without its fair share of challenges around things like labour and climate change and access to fibre is a big one. And last month, the Province added to that list in announcing the old-growth deferral, which pulls more than two million hectares of timber off the market. Industry experts predict more than a dozen sawmills and even a pulp million may disappear. Mayor Lyn Hall has joined with mayors from other potentially-impacted communities, saying the lobbying is not over.

“I’m certainly not viewing it that way,” says Mayor Lyn Hall. “There’s a 30-day consultation piece, they have the consultation with First Nations. But we’re doing things as a group and individually as communities to put forward our case to government to say ‘Look, this is the impact.’ And we understand now the impact to large companies, like Canfor, which has a number of operations throughout our region.”

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Armed with the information and a timeline, the City’s Economic Development arm will tweak its Move Up Prince George recruitment tool to better reflect the realities of the forest sector. But other additional action items include improving public perception of the industry and enhancing greater collaboration between the industry and others, like researchers.