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The best of times, the worst of times |
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Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
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Friday, 28 November 2008 |
Pat Bell, right, discusses Xiang'E Primary School reconstruction plans with project manager Ken Wong during a recent trade mission to China. Note the stained pine-beetle blue 2x4s being used for the job. (Submitted photo)
some of the darkest moments in the industry’s long history.
On the job now for six months, B.C. Forests Minister Pat Bell has the portfolio he wants -- forestry in the forest centre of the province.
This is a guy, after all, whose ring tone on his blackberry is the sound of a chain saw.
But Bell -- after stints in mining and agriculture -- has taken the helm at a disquieting time.
Thousands of forest workers -- in lumber and panel plants, as well as loggers and truckers in the bush -- have lost their jobs. The already-unprecedented downturn in the forest sector led by a collapse in U.S. housing has been cooled even further by a fast-moving global financial and credit crisis.
Among the hardest hit communities are those in this region, including in his riding of Prince George North.
Mackenzie alone has lost more than 1,200 forest manufacturing jobs with the shutdown of four sawmills, a pulp mill, a newsprint mill and a secondary lumber manufacturing plant. Another estimated 600 support and spinoff workers have also been lost in the community 175 kilometres north of Prince George.
While communities like Quesnel have been insulated from the massive shutdowns, Prince George has also been hit with a loss of more than 800 forestry jobs.
It's an unenviable position for the fast-food restaurant owner and former logger and trucker.
But Bell's optimistic disposition has not been dampened. He just returned from a trade mission to China where he fired off daily reports that highlighted what he sees as excellent opportunities for growth for B.C.'s lumber sector. Bell sees no reason why lumber shipments should not continue to grow to China, providing a pressure valve release to B.C.'s dependence on the U.S.
Bell is also championing the idea of growing better trees, faster, arguing there's a formula here than can boost the not-too-distant drop in timber supply, which is a result of the mountain pine beetle epidemic in north and central B.C.
He also believes that markets for new value-added products can be found in the commercial and institutional building sector, with the 2010 Winter Olympics acting as a backdrop to showcase new wood buildings with huge made-in-B.C. laminated beams for example.
Bell also sees this as the perfect time to implement changes that will help the forest sector make a shift to a greener industry that produces energy from burning wood waste. He imagines a new world that includes more wood pellet manufacturing, bio-refining to produce oils and other chemicals, as well as biofuels. The key to this shift is finding a way to ensure more of the tree, perhaps including its branches, is taken out of the bush. So far, how this might be accomplished is vague.
Bell views the potential shift as similar to one that took place under a former Prince George forests minister, Ray Williston, who was minister during the 1950s and 1960s, and helped lay the groundwork, including the use of new timber rights, for the emergence of a pulp industry in the Interior.
"I think we are in exactly the same position right now where people are looking at the material left behind in the forest -- they are looking at the potential for new industries to evolve. If we can establish the right policy regime today, we can have another whole segment to the industry we never thought of in the past," says Bell.
That policy change is likely going to involve an introduction of new tenure -- timber cutting rights and responsibilities -- because Bell acknowledges that companies who are going to invest in new plants have to have something to take to the bank. He said he has his staff examining the old pulp wood tenures, a tenure that provided a wood source of last resort to backstop chip agreements worked out between pulp mills and sawmills. The question is whether that tenure model makes sense for a new bioengery sector, says Bell.
However, the vision of an new, emerging sector and the contemplation of new policy does not immediately help the displaced workers in Mackenzie or the hundreds of other unemployed forestry workers in Prince George or Fort St. James.
Mackenzie mayor Stephanie Killam is not blaming Bell. As far as she's concerned, he's worked very hard under tough circumstances. "What do you do when it's a global thing, and you can't control it," she said.
Added Killam: "It would be just wonderful if we could manage our dollar so it was always to our benefit, and our markets are to our benefit. But companies make their own destiny, how they do their markets and what they focus on, and currently they focus on the American market. That's why we're pushing diversification here."
United Steelworkers local 1-424 president Frank Everitt says he likes the forest minister's emphasis on re-planting the forests which bodes well for the industry's future. But Everitt does believe the forests minister could be doing more -- particularly encouraging companies to clarify their indefinite closures. "Then people will know whether they need to get on with their lives," he said.
The United Steelworkers also wants the province to ensure that timber is manufactured in the area it is harvested.
The union is open to the idea of examining tenure, but not if it brings huge changes. "It wouldn't be good in my mind, if all of the licencees (companies) lost their timber and it just went on the open market," said Everitt.
When Bell was appointed forests minister, B.C. Council of Forest Industries president John Allan said the Prince George MLA was the right person in the right place for the right job.
Allan hasn't changed his mind and gives Bell high marks, straight As for leadership, energy level, understanding and communication. For results he gives Bell a B, but not for lack of effort, says Allan, whose organization represents most forest companies in B.C.'s Interior, including Canfor, the Sinclar Group, West Fraser and Tolko. "There are constraints like the U.S. housing market, the softwood lumber agreement which prevents writing cheques to companies, and other factors like the mountain pine beetle and exchange rates until just recently," observed Allan. "He's just not going to be able to do anything about those external factors."
He also gives Bell credit for leaving no stone unturned, including his recent trade mission to China.
Allan believes the focus now should be on creating the right attitude in the bureaucracy and applying a business lens to every decision. He does not expect to see results over night on the potential for a bioenergy sector. Allan also does not believe the world should be turned up side down right now on timber rights.
NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson also favours not leaving as much wood waste behind in the bush, and is pleased to hear Bell is talking about the same idea.
He says the timing of any government changes are critical.
"The logistics of who pays has to be figured out and there needs to be some arrangement with the existing licencee (company) around impact to annual cut, timber fee payments so they are not being penalized in a really ugly market situation," said Simpson.
However, he criticizes Bell for being too much of a booster in the face of the stark realities of the downturn. He's not doing industry any favours by saying good news is on the horizon, said Simpson, who is the MLA for Cariboo North and lives in Quesnel. "The companies end up looking like they don't know how to make it happen when another mill closes down," he said.
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Last Updated ( Friday, 28 November 2008 )
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