I was employed at Canfor's PG Pulp and Paper from 1986 until 1999.
It is easy to speak of changing times, the environment, and the changing eco-landscape, but there are some harsh realities that need to be addressed.
When I worked at the mill, I met Peter Bentley, the owner of Canfor, several times. He seemed a fair guy, and always remembered each one of us in the steam plant. Today, Canfor is owned by Jimmy Pattison, a guy who inherited the 'community' mantra of Canfor but can't seem to understand its meaning.
Shortly after opening a new pool resplendent with Canfor's name on it, and sponsoring a great many other projects, PG Pulp is no more due to no fibre supply.
Three hundred jobs!
Shareholders will be just fine!
Who do we blame? The changing socio-economic and environmental climate? No.
We blame Christy Clark who threw out the rules for the Annual Allowable Cut, exporting most of what we log and shutting down the B.C. sawmills that provided the fibre. We blame right-wing governments that ignored pine beetle kill until it was too late, but made it a national emergency when the wind knocked trees down in Stanley Park.
The City of Prince George is using artificially inflated home values to increase our property taxes to pay for the over-budget parkades and Canfor-sponsored pool. We are listed as the city with the highest crime rate in B.C. The city ignores the tax-paying, business owners in favour of addicts and the province's vagrants who use the front and back doors of local busineses as a toilet.
The city does not care. Most institutions in this city are manned by managers who are here to pad their resumes for jobs elsewhere. They do not care. We've lost one of three mills, and with it all those employees who have families, mortgages, and whose money will be taken out of the local economy.
The nomadic managers, the politicians, and the homeless addicts won't be affected by this, just the tax-paying citizens of our city. We may not be Mackenzie, but if Prince George city hall does not care, if Victoria does not care, why should we?
Time to sell, pack up, and move to greener pastures.
Northern Capital?
Don't make me laugh!
Michael Maslen
Prince George
