Merritt’s mayor doesn’t want to see timber leaving the community.

“[That timber is] ours and we feel very strongly that it should be staying here,” mayor Neil Mendard told Minister of Forests Lands and Natural Resources Steve Thomson when the two met at city hall last week.

Menard, chief administrative officer Shawn Boven and councillors Linda Brown, Diana Norgaard and, via phone, Coun. Dave Baker spoke to minister Thomson, his deputy minister Rick Manwaring and Fraser-Nicola MLA Jackie Tegart.

At issue was the timber that’s leaving the Nicola Valley as a result of Tolko closing its Merritt mill last December, and moving the logs to be processed at its other operations.

“We’ve kind of been through the hoops in this area in the last few years, and we want to do everything we can to hang on to the timber that belongs in our particular area,” Menard told Thomson.

Menard suggested the government introduce a law to fix the problem.

“They need to come back with something in legislation that does not allow timber to leave this area that was feeding and producing lumber for our mills,” said Menard. “It goes back to the old adage; if it’s here, it should be produced here and it should be sold here as a finished product.”

Under the NDP government of the 1990s, mills were tied to local communities under a social contract called appurtenancy. The Liberals stripped those rules in 2003.

Minister Thomson said the government has no plans to change this policy.

“I know it won’t be what you want to hear,” he said, adding that those decisions were made to allow the industry to adjust to global markets.

Menard said he felt the Liberal’s decision on appurtenancy shouldn’t of happened, and that the city would continue to  lobby the government to look into bringing it back in some form.

He also mentioned a number of local operations that have gone under in recent years, pointing out the loss of Weyerhaeuser and Ardew Wood Products — as well Tolko.

Tolko representatives have said the company closed the mill because there wasn’t enough lumber to build an economy of scale operation in Merritt after the annual allowable cut (AAC) for the Merritt Timber Supply Area (TSA) was reduced last spring.

Menard said that reduction has also led to jobs being cut and a reduction in production at the local Aspen Planers mill, noting the city is concerned that if production continues to decrease the mill will close.

“We’ll have another mill go down, sitting there being mothballed,” Menard said. “We cannot afford to lose another mill,” he added.

“Getting more timber to Aspen [Planers] would probably bring another 90 people back to work,” said Menard.

Thomson said Tolko and other license holders in the Merritt (TSA) will maintain their current apportionment levels, adding that he couldn’t reduce one without doing so to the others.

“The situation under the forest act is that if we’re going to maintain the licenses for the other companies … then we have to maintain them for Tolko as well,” he told the Herald.

What companies decide to do with their individual licenses are theirs to decide, Thomson told the Herald.

“We’ve found some ways to provide new opportunities for First Nations in the apportionment, but the companies — Aspen [Planers] Weyerhaeuser, Tolko — maintain their replaceable forest license levels,” he added.

Thomson said the ministry intends to continue to work with the community and City of Merritt to find new opportunities to create jobs.

“Tolko has made their decision,” Thomson told the Herald. “What we need to do now is work with the community to make sure we address the impacts, that’s why we’ve supported [Merritt] through the Rural Dividend funding,” he said.

Earlier this year the City of Merritt secured $100,000 from the rural dividend fund in response to Tolko shuttering the mill.

 

Menard wants to explore harvesting opportunities in parks, end offshore log exports

In the meeting with minister Thomson, Menard said the city wants to see an end to offshore log exports.

“We [also] have to start making a lot more noise about the amount of timber that’s being set aside for parks and protected areas,” he told Thomson. “Trees are like us — they get to a certain age and then they die and they’re no good.  We should be getting something out of those trees.”

Thomson said the government isn’t contemplating changing its log export policy as it works towards securing a new softwood lumber agreement with the U.S. He also noted that about one per cent of the harvest from the southern Interior get exported offshore.

About half of Canada’s log exports come from B.C.

Thomson, however, said he is more than willing to work with the community regarding what harvesting opportunities may be available in parks and protected areas.

“Whenever you go to look at some of those opportunities you get the opposite reaction from many who say those areas have values you shouldn’t be impacting and they were set aside for a reason,” Thomson said.

Thomson said factors such as species at risk and First Nations culture and interests will need to be taken into consideration when examining these areas.

“If there are some opportunities here where — with the right analysis and community support— we can find some additional area, then [I’m] more than willing to look through that,” said Thomson.

 

Meeting not a political move

Menard pointed out the city didn’t call this meeting because the provincial election is around the corner.

“We’re doing it because we’re serious,” said Menard. “We want something to happen, and if you get back in, when you get back in … we’re going to keep hounding you because it’s far too important fore us to let it go,” said Menard.

The election campaign officially begins on April 11.

NDP leader John Horgan was in Kamloops on Monday (March 27) outlining a forest strategy to reverse job losses, highlighting a New Democratic requirement to use B.C. wood in government-funded projects.

Horgan declined, however, to discuss whether the party would bring back any appurtenancy rules, noting it has not released its election platform.

Last spring, B.C.’s chief forester dropped the AAC in the Merritt Timber Supply Area by 900,000 cubic metres, moving from 2.4 million cubic metres to 1.5 million. On March 24, 2021 it will decrease to 1.2 million cubic metres.

In neighbouring Kamloops, the TSA was dropped 1.7 million cubic metres from 4 million to 2.3 million cubic metres.

Tolko said it conducted a review of the wood supply for all of its southern Interior operations following the reductions and determined there wasn’t enough wood available to operate all six of its mills.

Thomson said there will need to be another apportionment decision to consider when the Merritt TSA drops again in 2021.

—with files from Kamloops This Week