The Mayor of Williams Lake will not be in Victoria Wednesday.
Walt Cobb’s meeting with Premier John Horgan on Atlantic Power has been rescheduled to Friday afternoon in Vancouver due to the weather.
“We’ve got some solutions that we think are workable for them [provincial government] so we’re just not going there with a complaint,” Cobb said.
“It’s workable, it’s things that they’ve done in the past. Basically, the big solution is we need a contract.”
“We can’t afford when we look at the environmental impact that we will have if that plant is closed down with the burning in the woods and what not; a big thing that we have to sell is that this an environmental issue, it’s not just a money issue.”
Cobb said when we look at the past forest fires we have had, keeping the plant open will help that situation and get rid of a lot of the wood that has been burnt in the last two years.
“We might as well use it while we can and as long as we can rather than have to burn it in the bush again, because we’re told by all the experts that those trees that were burnt last year and the year before, if we don’t do something with them, they’re only going to catch fire again.”
Atlantic Power’s long term-electricity purchase agreement with BC Hydro expires at the end of June.
Cobb said Chief Willie Sellars of the Williams Lake Indian Band and United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 First Vice President Paul French will be joining him at Friday’s meeting with Horgan.
“The WLIB have a memorandum of understanding with the energy plant and with all of the trees that burnt out there they cut a deal with Atlantic Power and they used that up, rather than burning it out in the bush,” he said.
“As far as the Union goes we have 35 jobs that we’re concerned about, and this is a community thing. It’s not a political thing. It’s just something that we need solved.”