Manhunt suspects confessed to B.C. killings on video LOCAL 2
Saturday, September 28, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916 6
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Climate strike About 100 people gathered at Highway 16 and 97 on Friday as part of a series of protests around the globe urging world leaders to act more aggressively to combat climate change.
Study pushes B.C. forest sector toward new path No room at the inn for wayward black bear Chuck CHIANG Glacier Media
Despite a tumultuous 2019 that saw the B.C. forestry sector become one of the province’s most embattled industries, there is a possible light at the end of the tunnel if companies embrace a new business model with emphasis on high-value products. That is among the messages delivered by the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) in a report called Smart Future: A Path Forward for B.C.’s Forest Products Industry, published this month. The report comes as a wave of shutdowns and operational reductions – as many as 38 of them resulting in layoffs and curtailments – has hit the sector since May, causing more than 1,000 people to lose their jobs. Companies have blamed the job losses on factors ranging from a shrinking wood supply (due to mountain pine beetle infestation, fires and a general loss of land base) to intense competition from countries like Chile and Russia. “We are in a transition,” said COFI president and CEO Susan Yurkovich. “Mills have been curtailing operations… so we are going through this difficult period. But we’ve been hearing from folks
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about how to get through these sector’s need to move up the value challenges, and what I think is it’s chain in its products. Companies really important to work to supsay that as harvests decrease and port workers and communities as complications in government regwe transition… But we also need ulations multiply, B.C. has become to set ourselves up for the future, a high-cost producer, forcing small and there is a bright path if we and large operators to cut jobs. make some choices now.” Industry leaders fear that as That, Yurkovich said, is where harvests shrink, the cost of producthe Smart Future ing lumber and report comes in. wood products is The The document unlikely to drop applications lists six main back down to levpoints for provinfor solid-wood els seen a decade cial and federal ago. According use is increasing. governments to to the report, the consider: transiThere is a lot of talk annual allowable tion to a sustaincut will fall from able new business about mid-rises and 70 million cubic model; protecting taller buildings... metres in 2007 to the remaining half that amount land where wood — Canfor CEO Don Kayne by 2030. can be harvested; “What we need flexible regulation to remember that safeguards the environment is, for about the last 15 years or without discouraging investment; more, we’ve been dealing… with increased partnerships with Inmountain pine beetle-impacted digenous communities; “doubling wood,” Yurkovich said. “So over down” on diversifying internation- the years, as the quality of the al markets for B.C. wood products; fibre degrades, we did what we and wider use of the industry’s should have done by taking out as knowledge with green buildings much of it as possible while it still using wood. had value…. So B.C.’s industry One of the overarching themes developed markets for low-grade of the report is the B.C. forestry wood that was suited to the fibre
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we were getting. That’s changed now; we’re now moving back into high-quality fibre, and we have an incentive to get more out of it because the cost is also higher.” Canfor Corp. president and CEO Don Kayne said that while the cost of wood stemming from an inconsistent supply of fibre is undoubtedly a major issue for the industry, the fact that B.C. wood fibre is returning to high-quality status presents companies with a way forward in turning the sector around. That means the B.C. forestry sector should place greater emphasis on value-added products that can fetch greater profits, like dimension lumber, pulp and paper, pressure-treated components, laminated timber and fibreboards. “What’s really encouraging about the whole value-added area is that, first of all, we have an increasing opportunity… as we get higher-quality logs that will allow us to take advantage of some markets,” Kayne said. “The applications for solidwood use is increasing. There is a lot of talk about mid-rises and taller buildings; it’s not a dream or demonstration projects. These are projects that are actually happening around the world...”
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Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca A local motel was a scene of excitement early afternoon Thursday when a yearling black bear wandered onto the premises. “We were talking with one of our guests and she was like ‘I’m sorry, I have to interrupt you, but there is a bear,’ and I’m like, what? No way!” said Carrie Melo, a supervisor at the Spruceland Inn on Central Street West near 15th Avenue. In a panicked state, the bear darted about the motel courtyard. While co-workers took cover, Melo waved her arms and came close to chasing it out. — see BEAR, page 3
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