Grab forestry money before it’s too late

The provincial NDP has written to the Village of Burns Lake (VBL) mayor and council advising them to put in a claim for their share of the $129 million in federal forest assistance money before it runs out.

In a May 15 letter to council, MLA Charlie Wyse, the opposition critic for local government, pointed out that "there are limited funds so you would be advised to act quickly before it's gone."

The federal government has set aside $129 million to assist hard-hit forestry communities, and the provincial government is responsible for distributing those funds.

The letter goes on to state that after questioning Colin Hansen, the B.C. Minister of Economic Development, "[his] answers indicate that when communities apply for access to the $129 million that was received from the federal government, they need to make the case that they are an 'impacted forest community'."

The letter advised that "there is no hard and fast criteria that determines whether a community is 'impacted' or not."

In debates in the B.C. legislature on April 29, Hansen said, "We actually went through and looked at the percentage of employment, community by community, that was forest-related. We ranked those from the highest dependency on the forest sector to the lowest, around the province.

The approach that we are inclined to take ... is to ask communities ... when they are making applications to this fund, these communities would need to make a case as to why they are an impacted forest community."

A note to council from VBL Chief Administrative Officer Tim Palmer said that it was his "recommendation that staff review the funding potential for Burns Lake."

Palmer said that a letter has yet to be written by the mayor, "but we are following up on it. A resolution was passed by council at the May 27 meeting, directing staff to follow up on the letter from the NDP caucus."

"Any money that is out there and available, we are going to try to obtain," he concluded.

The letter to council also stated that opposition forest critic, MLA Bob Simpson, had received answers from Forest Minister Rich Coleman that "communities can have money made available to them to hold a community forum on the supports available for forest workers - if they ask.

For example, Prince George was given $25,000 to hold a forum ... to develop a transition strategy for their workers."

Coleman said in the legislature on May 5, "If we get other requests, we will consider them as they come in ... we would continue to do that in communities that asked and wanted help in regards to that."

The letter said that Simpson also obtained "a commitment from Coleman to visit impacted forest communities and hold open public meetings to hear the concerns of the community, like he did in Fort Nelson."

On May 6, in the legislature, Coleman said he had gone to Fort Nelson because he was invited, and stated, "I will go to other communities."

Palmer was asked if Coleman had been invited to Burns Lake.

"We casually invited him last November at the UBCM convention. Since we have received the letter from the NDP caucus suggesting that Mr. Coleman was amenable to visiting other communities, we think it's a good idea, and I will be putting forward instructions to staff recommending that council pursue such a visit by the minister."

Coleman was in Burns Lake last month as part of the premier's Working Roundtable on forestry, but that meeting had nothing to do with the release of the $129 million in federal funds given to the province to be distributed to hard-hit forest communities.