Inside
Career Week P. 10-13
◆ Cody Karey album P. 8 ◆ Out of Africa P. 16
◆ Instagraphics P. 2 ◆ RCMP report P. 3
Publications Mail Contract #: 40007759
WEDNESDAY, October 30, 2013
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VOL. 36 NO. 35 $1.30 inc. GST
Sunshine and adventure running
Don’t forget to turn your clocks back Sunday, Nov. 3rd 2 a.m.
Decar lab tests positive The Decar project, 80 km north of Fort St. James, has produced favourable lab results. According to 40 per cent owner First Point Minerals Corp. (a Vancouver-based company), lab tests have demonstrated the Decar ore containing the nickel-iron alloy awaruite can be upgraded in current ferronickel plants. The concentrates were made using grinding and magnetic separation then gravity concentration. Part of the attraction of the ore found in the Decar project is the lack of environmental concerns related to processing awaruite. Toxic reagents were not needed to process the ore.
Nominees needed
Every community has one or more—people who make life better for their communities by applying their hard work, skills and talents to such areas as arts and culture, sports and recreation, multiculturalism, environment, healthcare, education, civic duty, business innovation, community volunteerism, philanthropy and youth or seniors’ leadership. It’s time again to recognize these contributions by submitting a nomination to the prestigious British Columbia Community Achievement Awards. The deadline for nominations is Nov. 15. Information about how to nominate is found at www.bcachievement. com, by calling 604 2619777 or toll free at 1-866 882-6088. New for 2013 is an online nomination process.
Erica Olesiuk makes the summit during the Mt. Pope Run and Walk on Sunday, Oct. 20. Olesiuk took second place among women in the grueling 22 km adventure run. Results Page 6.
Travis James photo
Canfor and West Fraser mill closures
Canfor announced Oct. 24 that it will permanently close its sawmill located in Quesnel, in March 2014. Canfor’s 209 Quesnel-based employees will be offered positions elsewhere in the company. Canfor has entered into an agreement with West Fraser Mills Ltd. for an exchange in forest tenure rights. Canfor is exchanging 382,194 m3 of replaceable forest licence allowable annual cut in the Quesnel Timber Supply Area as well as 53,627 m3 of replaceable forest licence allowable annual cut in the Lakes Timber Supply Area with West Fraser in exchange for receiving 324,500 m3 of replaceable forest licence allowable annual cut in the Morice Timber Supply Area. The companies are also exchanging non-replaceable licenses and undercut volumes. “The timber availability in the Quesnel region following the mountain pine beetle infestation unfortunately leaves us unable to continue operation of our Quesnel sawmill,” said Don Kayne, Presi-
dent and CEO of Canfor Corporation, in a press release. “The additional fibre we have been able to secure in the exchange agreement with West Fraser enhances the fibre requirements for our Houston facility. We are committed to minimizing the impacts of this closure on our Quesnel employees.” Provincial and federal assistance is also available for affected workers and provincial government staff will be working closely with the District of Houston and City of Quesnel, said Forests Minister Steve Thomson, who is on a forestry trade mission to Japan and China. “Unfortunately, given the mountain-pine-beetle infestation, this news is not unexpected. This government has invested over $884 million to mitigate the beetle’s economic and environmental impacts, which includes supporting regional beetle action coalitions and economic diversification funding through the Northern Interior Development Initiative Trust.”
B.C. seeks to diversify Asia wood exports
B.C.’s annual forest products trade mission to Asia is finding slower growth in the Chinese market, but increasing use of higher-value products such as oriented strandboard. Forests Minister Steve Thomson and 25 B.C. forest products executives are visiting Shanghai and Beijing this week, after a stop in Japan to meet with government and industry officials. Thomson signed letter of intent with China’s Zhejiang province to develop wood frame building, in a rapidly urbanizing country that has traditionally used concrete. In a phone interview from Shanghai, Thomson said while economic growth in China has slowed, it is still far ahead of North American rates, and Zhejiang province expects a 12.5 per cent increase in wood construction in the coming year. China still imports mostly lower-grade B.C. lumber to use for concrete forms and interior walls of its sprawling urban apartment blocks, but new con-
struction techniques are catching on. The group toured a resort project using foam-insulated panels made from oriented strandboard and lumber supplied by B.C. producers Ainsworth Lumber, Tolko Industries and Weyerhaueser. “That’s a building system that was pioneered in Canada,” said Rick Jeffery, CEO of the Coast Forest Products Association. “Not only were they using our technology, they were using our OSB and our dimension lumber.” Jeffery said Chinese builders and furniture manufacturers are also using more coastal products, including red cedar and higher-grade hemlock. In Japan, Thomson spoke to an industry conference to assure delegates that B.C.’s pine beetle epidemic has not led to a shortage of high-grade lumber that has been long favoured by Japanese buyers. Japan has adopted a “wood first” construction policy simi-
lar to B.C.’s, which has led to increased wood construction in a country still recovering from the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in the Fukushima region. Thomson said Japan has 420,000 seniors waiting for spaces in elder care facilities, and wood construction is being offered as a faster and greener way to meet that demand. He expects B.C. export sales to Japan this year to match or exceed the $700 million total for 2012, and also an increase in the $1.1 billion total sales to China recorded last year. The Canadian and provincial governments have been financing demonstration wood projects for several years in both countries, sharing the cost with industry to showcase the benefits. In Japan, the B.C. delegation visited a public market and library built near the Fukushima earthquake zone, and signed an agreement for a third facility for people left disabled by the disaster.