"Tying logs to communities": Public meetings to be held in Mackenzie and Fort St. James
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – October 19, 2008
PRINCE GEORGE, BC. Public meetings are being held in Mackenzie, on October 27, and Fort St. James, on October 28, to discuss the issue of “tying logs to communities,” otherwise known as “appurtenance.”
Many people in the towns and regions of rural British Columbia believe that forestry companies should be required to process logs in or near the communities where they are harvested. Without such regulation, their concern is that forestry companies simply shut down mills, especially in smaller towns, and ship the raw logs out of the community, out of the region, and even out of the country.
On the other hand, the provincial government believes that having requirements that tie logs to communities will interfere with the “market forces” that make for a healthy and strong industry. In that respect, the Liberal government completely removed the “appurtenance” requirement in 2004, although, it should be noted, that governments in previous years had stopped rigorously enforcing the requirement as well.
At the present time, as people in towns like Mackenzie and Fort St. James are acutely aware, the forest industry in this province is in a severe downturn, with an unprecedented number of mills closed or with sharply curtailed production. Indeed, there is much concern about the future of these communities in the face of the collapse of the American housing market, the high Canadian dollar, the Softwood Lumber Agreement, and so on. Thus the issue of “tying logs to communities is on the minds of many people.
The meetings in Mackenzie and Fort St. James will feature two speakers. Rob van Adrichem is a regional development researcher who has written a paper on appurtenance and its possible application to the “knowledge industry.” He believes that appurtenance was “vital for the establishment and sustainability of communities in B.C,” and that its principles “continue to be relevant today.”
The second speaker is Peter Ewart, who is a community activist and writer based in Prince George and a spokesperson for the Stand Up for the North Committee. He believes, that in these uncertain economic times, discussion on the issue of “tying logs to communities” is both “appropriate and necessary,” and that this concept could be used to foster, not only more primary wood production, but also getting more “value” out of the wood itself through the establishment of value-added wood operations and other means.
Everyone is invited to attend and participate in this important discussion.
Mackenzie meeting
Date: 7pm, Monday, October 27
Place: Steelworkers’ Union Hall (Elk’s Building)
Fort St. James meeting
Date: 7pm, Tuesday, October 28
Place: District Office of Fort St. James
Organized by: Mackenzie Committee of Concerned Citizens, Fort St. James Committee of Concerned Citizens,
& Stand Up for the North Committee
