Local politicians gave B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson their loudest applause for his call to do more for the province91裸聊视频檚 struggling forest industry.

Speaking to the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention Thursday, Wilkinson described the plight of logging truck drivers who drove from all over the B.C. Interior to circle the Vancouver convention centre demanding action from the provincial government. Their horn-blasting protest lasted for hours Wednesday, resulting in a brief meeting with Forests Minister Doug Donaldson.

Thanks Interior logging contractors for raising awareness on forest economy with truck convoy to downtown Vancouver. Working together building on our $69 million support program to address additional urgent measures and longer-term solutions that needed work years ago

91裸聊视频� Doug Donaldson (@DonaldsonDoug)

91裸聊视频淭hose people in those trucks are almost all contractors who owe something between $100,000 and $1 million to the bank, and they have no work,91裸聊视频� Wilkinson said. 91裸聊视频淎nd many of them have told us they91裸聊视频檝e had no work since May.91裸聊视频�

leader speaks to about effort of log truck drivers to get urban B.C. attention

91裸聊视频� Tom Fletcher (@tomfletcherbc)

Communities that have lost sawmill employment, such as Vavenby and Vanderhoof, have effectively been told 91裸聊视频測ou91裸聊视频檙e expendable,91裸聊视频� Wilkinson said, adding that Donaldson recently said in a radio interview that people who are losing their jobs at Hammond Cedar in Maple Ridge can get a job on the Pattullo Bridge replacement project.

RELATED:

RELATED:

Wilkinson said B.C.91裸聊视频檚 stumpage charges on Crown land logs are up to 10 times higher than in Alberta, contributing to the highest log costs in North America, and the forest industry is shifting there as a result. Protesting truckers also called for reduced stumpage, which Donaldson has warned is a provocation to the U.S. industry that has already imposed import duties of around 20 per cent on B.C. lumber.

Asked about that risk, Wilkinson told Black Press that government is about 91裸聊视频渂est practices,91裸聊视频� and Alberta has out-competed B.C. with similar conditions.

91裸聊视频淭hey91裸聊视频檙e dealing with the same government in the U.S.A.,91裸聊视频� he said.

Wilkinson said the pain of rural communities was increased by $25 million that was 91裸聊视频渟tolen91裸聊视频� from the province91裸聊视频檚 Rural Dividend fund to include in a $69 million retraining and retirement package for four Interior communities that have mills closing.

That money and much more has been diverted into the NDP government91裸聊视频檚 union-only public construction program, which has raised the cost of a short stretch of highway widening near Revelstoke by millions, Wilkinson said.

tfletcher@blackpress.ca
Like us on and follow us on .