Vaughn Palmer: Eby warns forestry sector to fix its problems or government will

VICTORIA — Premier David Eby responded this week to the latest curtailments in the forest sector with a threat to forest tenure holders and producers alike.

“My message to these two groups — the people who have the trees and the people who are producing the jobs from the trees — is very straightforward,” Eby told reporters Tuesday. “If they can’t come to a creative solution on their own to ensure that the value-added sector gets access to those trees, the government will have to intervene.”

Eby was responding to Monday’s news that B.C.-based Sinclar Forest Products was reducing operations for several weeks in Fort St. James, Vanderhoof and Prince George, affecting an estimated 500 workers.

Sinclar president Greg Stewart said “the high cost of fibre, compounded by poor market conditions, … has forced us to take these measures.”

“The curtailments are necessary to maintain log inventory and draw down rough lumber inventories at the three operations in the face of the dual challenge of high fibre costs and low lumber prices,” the company said in a news release.