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Wednesday, September 18, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

Province announces $69M for displaced forest workers Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca B.C. Forests Minister Doug Donaldson unveiled a $69-million package Tuesday, aimed at supporting forest workers hit by mill closures and shift reductions in Interior communities. The centrepiece is $40 million over two years for an earlyretirement bridging program for older forest workers. Rounding out the measures are $15 million for a new short-term employment program, $12 million for skills training and $2 million for a job placement coordination office. Flanked by Labour Minister Harry Bains and parliamentary secretary Ravni Kahlon, and with a throng of United Steelworkers among the dignitaries looking on, Donaldson made the announcement at a Sinclar Group yard off River Road in Prince George. He said as many as 3,000 workers could benefit from the measures with the bridging program accounting for 400 in the “first go round.” “We know about of third of those who’ve been laid off or under indefinite curtailment are probably in the age-eligible category of age 55 or above,” Donaldson said while fielding questions from local media. Along with those directly impacted by a mill closure, ageeligible workers at other mills whose positions could be filled by a younger worker from an affected mill would also qualify, he noted while making the announcement. “And that’s an important point because we want continuity of a good, strong, skilled worker base to guide us into the future for future opportunities in the sector,” Donaldson added. The bridging program is over two years and is contingent on cost-sharing with workers’ respective employers. That raised an alarm bell for B.C. Liberal Opposition Forests Critic John Rustad, who took in the event from Victoria via live streaming. “If they expect industry to step up to the plate at this time when they’re losing so much money, I think that’s a pretty tough ask,” he said in an interview. United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 president Brian O’Rourke

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Minister of Forests Doug Donaldson, at podium, and Parliamentary Secretary Ravi Kahlon, Mayor Lyn Hall and Labour Minster Harry Baines make an announcement about helping B.C.’s interior forestry workers affected by mill closures in Prince George on Tuesday. welcomed the announcement. “This, today, will not make everything right but it will soften the blow for a lot of our members in the smaller rural communities,” he said. In a conversation with Kahlon, O’Rourke called for a jobs commissioner similar to one appointed when the New Democrats previously held power in the 1990s as a way to make sure companies impose curtailments and shut downs for the right reasons. “I think we need to hold these forest companies to task – the ones that are just, in our opinion, closing down the mills, holding our members as hostage to try to get reductions in stumpage and other things,” he told Kahlon. “These mills are viable operations, there is timber in the areas and they’re still being shut down.” Donaldson also called on the federal government to add to the funding. While attending a meet-

ing of federal, provincial and territorial forest ministers in August, he delivered a letter to a representative of federal Natural Resources Minister Amarjeet Sohi outlining a five-point plan for further collaboration between the two levels of government. However, with the election now underway, it looks like he will have to wait until sometime after Oct. 21 to get a response from Ottawa. The governing NDP should have acted sooner, Rustad said. “They should’ve done this months ago,” he said. Tracy Calogheros, who is running for the Liberals in CaribooPrince George, was the only candidate in the federal election to appear at the event. Electing a Liberal to the riding will help draw federal money, she suggested. “I know that there is an opportunity to really advocate on this part of the region but you really need

to do that from a government position, so I’ve done what I can from the outside,” she said. Donaldson dismissed calls to reduce the stumpage companies are charged for the logs they process, saying that would only risk compromising Canada’s appeal of the tariffs on softwood lumber shipped to the United States. Asked about the B.C. Liberals call to calculate stumpage on a monthly basis rather than annually with adjustments each quarter, Donaldson said that would be counterproductive given the current high price logs are fetching due to a lack of supply. Rustad suggested otherwise, saying seven of the last 10 B.C. Timber Sale blocks on the coast that were put on the block failed to draw any bids. “Companies are not bidding up the cost of logs at this point because the cost structure is so high and the demand is so low,”

Rustad said. He said B.C. is the highest-cost producer in North America and about 60 per cent of the problem is due to high stumpage and 40 per cent to government taxes and red tape. “Whether it’s the employer health tax, whether it’s the carbon tax, the myriad of policy and reporting changes that have been put in place by this government, the delays and the challenges of trying to get cutting permits and permits through the process – all of that adds into that cost,” Rustad said. Rustad did applaud the $15 million for a new short-term employment program, noting it will go towards removing fuel load to reduce the chances of wildfires in forests adjacent to communities. “I give them kudos. I think that’s a good program to have set up and in place,” he said. — see ‘WE’LL HAVE, page 3

Gov’t ending ‘birth alert’ baby seizures Jeremy HAINSWORTH Glacier Media B.C. will cease so-called birth alerts that have led to the seizures of infants as young as 90 minutes old from parents deemed to be a danger to their children, the minister of children and family development said Monday. Katrine Conroy said the alerts have been primarily issued for marginalized women and, disproportionately, Indigenous women. The alerts were addressed in the final report of the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls released earlier this year. It said hospital social workers are given a list of women who are pregnant and their due dates and as soon as one of these women entered the hospital to give birth, an alert was activated.

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“We acknowledge the trauma women experience when they become aware that a birth alert has been issued,” Conroy said. “We also heard calls to end this practice from Indigenous communities, organizations and the report from the National Inquiry into Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.” The inquiry final report called child apprehensions “a form of violence against the child. It also represents the worst form of violence against the mother. Apprehension disrupts the familial and cultural connections that are present in Indigenous communities, and, as such, it denies the child the safety and security of both.” The report said birth alerts against Indigenous mothers, including mothers who were in foster or government care themselves, can be the sole basis for the apprehension of their newborn children.

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“Birth alerts are racist and discriminatory and are a gross violation of the rights of the child, the mother and the community,” the report said. The alerts have been used in B.C. Manitoba, New Brunswick, Ontario and Alberta. Saskatchewan said in March it was working to decrease usage of the alerts. Literature on the practice said women would avoid going to hospitals to give birth – fearing loss of the child – and not receiving medical care as a result. Conroy said changes are being made to work with and support high-risk expectant parents to keep newborns safe and families together through a collaborative, rather than an involuntary, model. Health care providers and social service workers will no longer share information about expectant parents without consent from those parents and will stop the prac-

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tice of birth alerts,” Conroy said. B.C. Green Party MLA Sonia Furstenau said in her riding a three-day-old child was taken from a mother without explanation in 2018. The child was, however, ordered returned by a judge. Furstenau said in a Kamloops case this year, a mother delivered a child by caesarean section only to have the little girl seized by childcare workers 90 minutes later. “These are examples of deeply damaging actions on the part of government,” Furstenau said. “We need to recognize that the humanitarian crisis of Indigenous child apprehensions will not be stopped by tinkering around the edges of a very broken, nonevidence based system.” She questioned why it has taken the government so long to end the practice.

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