But every day, the 42-year-old welder at the Paper Excellence pulp mill wonders if he will wake up to a layoff or permanent job loss — and may have to start commuting to remote job sites in the oil and gas sector, or just pull up stakes and leave the community he calls home.
The unions say they want to be part of key reforms for a modern, value-added and sustainable provincial forest industry. A number of factors brought the industry to the current “crisis” point, according to the report, which cites the ongoing software lumber dispute with the U.S and, starting in 2003, a B.C. Liberal government that gutted the Forest Lands Reserve Act and Forest Practices Code, which “handed over power to industry owners to self regulate.”
• Develop a strategy to maximize the value-added sector with measures to support innovative and high-tech manufacturing, training and skills investments, clean energy joint ventures and the development of new markets, and research and development into new forms of engineered woods and paper. He said taking water licensing out of the Forests Ministry, for example, allows it to focus entirely on stabilizing fibre supply.