|
Expansion threatened
• Back to News
Lumber deal could close new plant, kill 50 jobs, Brink warns
by GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Brink Forest Products is sitting on an investment worth more than $4 million in a new lumber remanufacturing plant which will be mothballed if the company can't get enough quota under the latest proposed deal to end the softwood dispute with the U.S.
Company president John Brink is warning the B.C. government it must protest allocation principles proposed by the federal government where quota is based strictly on shipments to the U.S. in a 2 1/2-year period ending Sept. 30. No quota is being set aside for new entrants or for special circumstances.
That has to be changed, said Brink, who said he was encouraged to invest in the new plant because of the B.C. government's sweeping forest policy changes which were intended to encourage new entrants and an expansion of the value-added sector.
Brink's new plant -- across from his existing operations on River Road -- would create 50 jobs, the first new lumber manufacturing jobs in Prince George in about a decade. The primary sawmilling industry has shed hundreds of jobs in the Prince George region in the same period.
"We're doing precisely what we've been encouraged to do in the province of British Columbia," said Brink, surveying the new plant which is only weeks away from startup.
Brink said he's particularly disappointed the provincial government -- Premier Gordon Campbell, Forests Minister Mike de Jong and local MLAs -- have been silent on the issue of the importance of quota for remanufacturers and new entrants.
"It makes me immensely angry," said Brink, who is a B.C. Liberal supporter who ran for a candidacy in the last election. "We as a government in B.C. -- and local government and regional representatives -- must stand up and say 'No, this is not acceptable.'"
De Jong has not been available for comment since he spoke to reporters on a telephone conference call on Sunday. He's scheduled to be in Prince George on Tuesday when he will speak at a Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
Brink said lumber remanufacturers have suffered under the recent trade dispute, in part because they don't have pockets as deep as large forest companies. Lumber remanufacturers take lower-grade lumber and trim ends, and mill and glue them to create a higher-quality product called finger-jointed lumber.
Remanufacturers were also paying a premium on raw material as a result of the duties, then having to pay the 27-per-cent tariffs on shipments to the U.S., in effect being hit twice, said Brink. It has meant lower shipments to the U.S., he said.
The latest proposal to resolve the softwood lumber dispute is a quota deal that caps Canada's duty-free exports at a 31.5-per-cent share of the U.S. market. In 2002, Canada had nearly 34 per cent of the U.S. market.
The U.S. Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports has already agreed to the deal, while Canada is consulting with provinces and lumber producers. Producers are split in B.C, while there is more opposition in Ontario and Quebec.
Last Sunday, before consultations took place with the federal government, de Jong said quota shouldn't become a commodity that companies believe they own. "The process of dividing up, allocating and maintaining some kind of mechanism by which new entrants can grow their business is one of the huge challenges associated with this," added de Jong.
Industry observer Laurie Cater believes the quota deal will all but kill investment in the lumber and remanufacturing sector across Canada. "The way it stands we are signing on for a no-growth forest policy," said Cater, publisher of Madison's Lumber Reporter based in Vancouver. "I guess that's what the U.S. wants. They don't want investment in new facilities. They don't want more production coming from Canada."
|
