The British Columbia Pulp and Paper Coalition has spoken out following the closure of yet another mill, this time Domtar's Crofton pulp and paper mill in Port Alberni.They called it a "catastrophic blow to people on Vancouver Island, the provincial economy, and a cornerstone BC industry," and argued that the BC government — not Donald Trump and his tariffs — are to blame.About 350 jobs will be lost in the latest closure..STAMER: NDP putting BC's forestry sector on the chopping block ."Our Coalition, labour, suppliers, and other industry associations have warned the provincial government for more than two years that more pulp mill closures on the BC Coast are inevitable unless government changes the policies that are strangling the fibre supply needed by the industry," BCPPC General Manager Joe Nemeth said in a statement. He noted that while the Ministry of Forests "has made some headway under existing policy to free up fire-damaged or waste fibre," the moves "have not been made fast enough or at a big enough scale to save Crofton and many of the sawmills that have closed this year.".Nemeth explained that the BCPPC, along with the First Nations Forestry Council, COFI, TLA, ILMA, IWPA, Woodlots BC, NWLA, Wood Pellet Association and the three major unions sent a letter to Forests Minister Ravi Parmar in November that "outlined a new process to fast-track the cutting permit process for damaged timber stands.""BC has over 200 million m3 of fire damaged timber alone, that is dead and rotting but could be used in many of our mills, like Crofton," he added. "That damaged timber represents over ten years of fibre supply for the entire BC pulp sector. We need to access this fibre now.".RUSS: Prioritizing resource sector key to bolstering employment in BC.Nemeth made it clear that the current fibre supply crisis is a "made-in-BC problem.""This is not happening because of American trade tariffs," he declared. "While the Premier's January mandate letter to Minister Parmar charged him with delivering an annual harvest of 45 million cubic meters, the current trend shows that this year's harvest in BC will be about 30 million cubic meters and continuing to decline."Nemeth concluded by noting that "if our fibre supply challenges are not dealt with immediately, BC will experience more mill closures, more job loss, and more pain for BC's resource communities."
