BC’s Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar is is dismissing Conservative claims that he and his government are to blame for the temporary curtailment at Quesnel River Pulp.
A temporary shutdown will take place from September 4 until November 1 and possibly longer.
Ravi Parmar says it’s easy to point fingers, and no one wants to see people out of work.
“When I met with Millar Western, they assured very clearly with me that the reason that they had to do this was the very reason they warned me a number of months ago and that is pulp prices are dangerously low and they’re not making money, so if the Conservative Party wants to use this as a tool to discredit me and my government, fill their boots.”
Parmar says he would prefer that Conservatives like Sheldon Clare, would instead work with him to find solutions to the challenges that we’re facing today.
He says they are the same challenges we’ve faced in the past, which is that no government of any political stripe has been able to shift this sector away from commodity pricing towards a value added type forestry that doesn’t put workers in this position.
Parmar says he plans to follow up with Millar Western next week.
“I think there are some things we can work together on to try to drive their operational costs down. I said to them, and they very clearly aligned, that what’s not on the table is that we cannot drive down labour standards or environmental standards. There are some things we can do to be more innovative, more efficient.”
Parmar says he is also mindful however that the company has a price that is dependent on a commodity cycle, and right now that commodity cycle has tanked.
“I’d like to think that it can’t get any worse, we can only go up from here, but the question is when will it go up and that’s a challenge they shared with me and they were losing money and were in a position where they were very vulnerable, so I think they’ve made a strategic decision. What I’m most appreciative of in my interactions with Millar Western over the last year and a bit since I’ve been BC’s Minister of Forests is they continue to invest in British Columbia, and they have told me time and time again they’re committed to British Columbia.”
In terms of forestry as a whole, Parmar says the tariffs in the United States are a huge headache, but we also have our own challenges here in B.C.
“I’m working very hard to address them and in fact I will be in Prince George in a couple of weeks to announce some changes to BC Timber Sales that I think is going to help the sector get back on its feet, and not only that pivot away. I’m going to be announcing a major policy change in the next week that I think is going to help the longevity of this sector in the future as well.”
