Stamer worried federal forestry support won’t tackle major B.C. challenges

KAMLOOPS — On Wednesday (June 3), federal energy and natural resource minister Tim Hodgson was in British Columbia to announce millions of dollars for forestry sector support. 

While Kamloops-North Thompson MLA and forest critic Ward Stamer applauded the funding injection into the province, he’s worried it won’t help change the systemic issues the industry is facing in B.C. 

“I know it’s going to help some of our value added sector, it’s going to help some of the planning going forward,” said Stamer. “But again we are struggling with some structural challenges in this province and a lot of that is regulation and policy from the NDP. It’s got nothing to do with some of the other things that are going on, yes the tariffs don’t help, in some cases it does put us into the tipping point and we do need a long term soft wood lumber agreement with the federal and American governments.”