The mayor of Grand Forks says he is counting his community’s blessings given the state of the BC forest industry.
Everett Baker was among more than 60 elected officials and 600 forestry workers who attended the Council of Forest Industries conference in Vancouver last week.
The statistics he related back to city council this week were dire: 21 mills closed and 15,000 forestry jobs lost in BC since 2022.
“We could be one of those [closed mills], but we are not,” Baker said, crediting both Interfor and the forests minister. “I appreciate the work that they’ve done to keep our mill operational in spite of what’s happening throughout the province.”
Baker said in his discussions with Interfor, the company has described its local situation as “fluid.”
Interfor closed its Grand Forks sawmill last fall for what was supposed to be a few weeks, but was extended indefinitely. It subsequently reopened in November with a single shift of 68 employees, and Baker says there is some hope that a second shift may be added. Baker made a trip to Ottawa in October at his own expense to press the federal government for a US softwood deal, and to seek relief for idled workers.
Baker said the feeling of the industry as expressed at the conference is that government policies are failing forestry.
“They believe the allowable cut is there, [but] the government is not allowing them to take that cut. And then the permitting and policy changes so radically that it’s extraordinarily difficult for them to set any plan in place.”
Baker was joined at the conference by Interfor woodlands manager Ryan Weltz as well as Dan Macmaster, a Boundary-based forester for the Osoyoos Indian Band; Boundary-Similkameen MLA Donegal Wilson; RDKB chair Grace McGregor; Area E director Sharen Gibbs; and Area B director Linda Worley.
Baker said he spoke with Forests Minister Ravi Parmar and did a couple of interviews where he repeated this phrase: “Any day, every day, I will fight to protect the forestry jobs in our community, given the importance of forestry to our local economy.”
