Image Credit: CFJC Today / Kent Simmonds

By Jill Sperling

Community Meeting

Community meeting raises questions about Canfor forest tenure

Jul 9, 2019 | 4:34 PM

CLEARWATER, B.C. — More than 100 people attended a meeting for Clearwater and area residents Monday evening.

The meeting gave those affected by the Canfor sawmill closure an opportunity to ask questions of the mayor and other local leaders.

As laid-off employees look for new jobs, the question of what will happen to Canfor’s forest tenure remains.

Clearwater mayor Merlin Blackwell says the community has been struggling under the news of the closure of the Vavenby sawmill.

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“We’re seeing a trickle down in Clearwater in all aspects of life,” Blackwell said. “Things like career services are slowing down because of the need to bring things into town for Canfor isn’t there. There’s some uncertainty about kids signing up for local hockey. There’s spouses that are in some cases choosing to leave town with their husbands, especially at the executive level, to go to other opportunities.”

Blackwell was among community leaders to address residents at Monday’s meeting.

He was joined by representatives from the TNRD, Canfor, Interfor and WorkBC.

“It got quite heated in discussions with Canfor and Interfor, but mostly Canfor,” he said. “A lot of people had that opportunity to vent and let their frustrations about how this deal had gone down.”

Canfor announced in June it would be closing its Vavenby sawmill in July.

The closure means more than 170 people have lost their jobs.

Canfor also announced its intention to sell its forest tenure to Interfor for $60 million.

“Lots of people talked about the tenure and how we could look at it differently,” said TNRD Area A Director Carol Schaffer. “Instead of it all going to Interfor maybe the Community Forest can get some and the Simpcw Nation can get some and look at it that way.”

“That is one of the drives to increase our tenure size and then therefore be able to support additional jobs, additional loggers and community activities,” said George Brcko, manager of the Wells Gray Community Forest.

Brcko says the Community Forest has put $3 million back into the community over the past 10 years.

“It sometimes takes a bit of crisis for people to realize the benefits of some of the things that exist already,” Brcko said. “It was a very positive reply from the public, I think we do have a lot of support for the Community Forest.”

The sale of the tenure is still up in the air and requires approval from the Forests Minister.