Vaughn Palmer: Forest companies won’t invest in B.C. without changes by government

VICTORIA — Premier David Eby offered the usual government solution to this week’s news of the permanent closure of pulp production at the Canfor mill in Prince George.

Eby expressed sympathy for the 300 workers who’ll lose their jobs add said the government is dispatching a crisis response team to the community.

The team will offer “training, transitioning to retirement, or other supports,” the premier told reporters in Vancouver on Thursday.

Welcome relief for those facing permanent job loss. But scarcely reassuring to anyone hoping the industry has a future.

“I’m getting a little tired of retirement packages and retraining,” said Jeff Bromley, chair of the Steelworkers Wood Council, when the NDP government made a similar response to an earlier round of layoffs. “I don’t believe that this is a sunset industry. It’s an industry that is sustainable and then renewable.”