Newfounland Drops The Hammer

Closing a mill and planning to get rich selling your timber rights? Don't try it in Newfoundland & Labrador where their government has decided thou shalt not profit from creating ghost towns.
Abitibi-Bowater is about to have it's timber rights and hydro-electric rights expropriated for not living up to it's commitments closing down a pulp mill!
--- link to story
Take note BC, with an election coming next year will this be added to a Party platform?

FSJ Curse Continues

One of the biggest drawbacks to living in the Fort is The Drag... an ongoing curse where nothing, absolutely nothing ever gets resolved, completed, or comes to a conclusion in a timely manner. It just goes on and on and on, forever.
Witness Mt. Milligan. The mine that's been about to open for the whole 20 years I've lived here.
Now, the latest is that they're a victim of economic times, They can't borrow money, just like any other business.
Victims of the financial crisis that doesn't exist here according to our Glorious Leader in Ottawa. You know, the one with the Mr. Dreesup fuzzy sweater who says we're in great shape and spends more time playing partisan games and fomenting Parliamentary crises...
The latest 'opening date' is now moved into Spring 2010. Any Investment here will be on hold for another year.

http://tinyurl.com/6sa8z9

MIlligan moves ahead, but?

Terrane Metals continues to award contracts on its proposed $916-million Mount Milligan gold and copper mine in the Northern Interior.
The company has awarded two additional contracts, with ABB Switzerland Ltd. to supply motors for the mills and to Siemen AG for transformers for mine-site substations. Earlier this year, Terrane awarded a contract to Metso Minerals Industries to supply various mills, including the primary crusher mill.
... Responding to questions about the sinking price of copper and poor commodity markets:
"Should we get to the third quarter of 2009 and these markets are still terrible, and you can't (borrow) a nickel from a bank, obviously we are not going to be starting construction even if we get permits in place," said Pease.
However, the company has options if the financial picture doesn't improve, including delaying of the first-year's construction which might be able to be caught up at a later date

-- full article PG Citizen

Wardrop Engineering Inc. has been awarded the detailed engineering design and procurement contract for the Mt. Milligan Copper-Gold Project.

--- from opinion250

Jack Layton's Right!

Scrap the Softwood Deal!

Everyone knows it was an awful deal, after all. It raised the penalty for exporting lumber to the U.S. from a combined rate of 10.8 per cent to 15 per cent; it also hit Canada with the so-called "surge mechanism," designed to discourage investment in Canadian sawmills. Then it added insult to injury by handing half a billion dollars of our money to the U.S. Coalition on Fair Lumber Imports -- the ultra-protectionists who launched the lumber fight -- and another half billion to George Bush for use as a political slush fund.

The deal increased raw log exports by saddling lumber exporters with a border tax but allowing raw logs to enter the U.S. duty-free. It encouraged investment in the U.S. rather than in Canada since our sawmills pay the 15 per cent tax while U.S. mills pay nothing. And both Ottawa and B.C. handed Canadian companies cash with no strings attached, most of which they immediately invested in the U.S. No wonder that in the now-melting-down North American building products market, Canadian producers are even more severely hammered than their U.S. competitors.

On top of all this, Canada was inches from winning the dispute before World Trade Organization tribunals, NAFTA panels and U.S. courts. Days after the deal was signed in 2006 the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled the U.S. tariffs and duties illegal, ordering the U.S. government to give back all of Canada's money. But since Stephen Harper had already caved in and signed a sweetheart deal with George Bush, that decision was moot. We threw away a sure win in the courts for sure defeat under the Harper-Bush deal.

-- from thetyee.ca

We Hate To Say We Told Ya So Dept.:

Pact lets dollars pour into mergers, not jobs and communities.

--look back to what was written in 2006. It's ALL BECOME TRUE.

And in the Things Aren't Getting Better Dept. we point out, well, in spite of smiles and back-claps and pancake breakfasts - now we may end up without one gas station in the Municipal District!

Chevron/Town Pantry bales out of the Fort - link to the Citizen
and we know Mr. G is barely hanging on. The 3 people who will actually put 'Last Gasp' pseudo-fuel in a $35,000+ vehicle can't keep that going.
AND Mackenzie - link to the Citizen
And the town is right pissed. Unfortunately not too many citizens here think a modernized station would make a go of it.
Do you think a Triple-0 burger takeout inside the Town Pantry would make money? Of course not - you probably won't! But your kids would buy every burger it cranked out just because it's close to the school, and just because it's a franchise name. Believe it or not, people would keep a McDs going in this town just because it isn't the same old unpredictable piece of shit burger.
It's time for someone to put their money where their mouth is and support a modern franchise outlet here, whether it be 7-11, A&W or a mini-White Spot. Otherwise, just like Chevron Head Office, YOU don't think your own town deserves anything but second-rate knock-offs.
A real carwash would be good too, rather than standing in 6" of muck off a logging truck and feeding tokens in for hours while you get wetter than your car.

Canadians Want Aid For Forest Industry

The results of a new poll by Nanos Research for the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union of Canada (CEP) come as major forest companies in Canada face an immediate debt crisis.
The poll showed that 60% of Canadians agreed or somewhat agreed that federal and provincial governments should financially support the forest industry to prevent more companies from failing. Just 32.1% disagreed or somewhat disagreed with government support for forestry companies.

--Unfortunately, the Softwood Lumber Agreement specifically bans any aid that would benefit our own industry. A major reason why much of the money returned after the signing of the Agreement was used by Canadian mills to purchase US operations instead of modernizing and upgrading their own.

Here's the link to the full article

Close to home, the Mackenzie Pulp mill will not be firing up before next spring.
Mackenzie mill will be winterized, no plans to restart before spring

West Fraser Buys Stuart Lake Lumber

But no guarantee it will open; may just want the timber rights.

West Fraser has reached an agreement to buy Stuart Lake Lumber, which owns a sawmill in Fort St. James shut down since the spring of 2007.
The mill will not be operating any time soon because of market conditions, West Fraser would consider all of its options.
Forest industry analyst Paul Quinn said West Fraser is making a smart move by buying the mill for its long-term timber rights

.
---link

Meanwhile, Conifex is trying to start up the old Pope&Talbot mill but is experiencing some delays
---link

Least Imaginative Use Makes Headlines

Alberta to make newsprint from beetle-damaged wood
Of all the thousands of uses for the beetle-killed wood, the least imaginative (grind it up and make pulp) is tearing up the 'news' these days. Perhaps it's because it's Alberta the most Tory-friendly, least imaginative Province in the country.
Perhaps it's because Alberta has decided to actually do something, rather than simply flap their gums endlessly and gobble up grant after grant, study after study, proposal after proposal while the wood rots in the forest and becomes a serious fire hazard.
Time for British Columbia to put it's money where it's mouth is!
----CBC source

Good, Bad, and Ugly News

The Good: The Receiver has found a buyer for Mackenzie Pulp, a numbered Alberta company which already owns several pulp mills. They'll be in court today asking it to approve the sale, and to uphold Canfor's obligation to supply chips.
---from opinion250

The Bad (which is really another good): Terrane has reached an agreement with GoldCorp that allows them to acquire a direct joint interest in the Mt. Milligan project. While this is good in that it secures financial backing for the near $1 billion project, we're naming it 'the bad' only because of a tainted history of Mt Milligan flipping shares and selling from one company to the other over the last 20 years and never actually producing!
---this from PG Citizen

The Ugly: and this one has the potential to become REALLY UGLY! Russia seems to have come to it's senses and will be imposing a significant increase in taxes on raw log exports. This is going to drive the importing countries like China, Finland, etc to seek supply elsewhere and BC companies are already trying to make exporting logs look like a good thing.
The reasoning is going to be the "at least" pitch, at least the loggers can keep working. You know the pitch that's been used over and over to make the people of the 2nd largest resource country on the planet who should be among the world's best off, accept as little as possible.
We'll also get the pitch that only the evil commie-fascist Russians control raw log exports therefore we as good free enterprisers have no right at all to tell companies they can't tear down the forest and ship it out without creating a single job for Canadians. (Gee the same pitch the Yanks have fed us for two decades!)
--read all about it in the Vancouver Sun, with the spin how it could "Boost BC Forestry"

FINALLY !!!!

Emerging forestry firm Conifex Inc. won court approval Monday to buy and operate the Fort St. James sawmill.
Conifex, a new firm being set up by three former forestry and investment banking executives, said it will pay $12.8 million for the Fort St. James mill in northern British Columbia. The deal also include $3 million in liabilities, including reforestation and environmental expenses.
Conifex - which is being run by former Slocan CEO Ken Shields, Former Primex Forest Products CEO George Malpass and former Raymond James executive Dave Roberts - said it plans to have the mill fully operating by next month.
--- 680 news

Finally some great news to report. A Canadian company, and the Court even gave a big 'f.o,a.d.' to Indonesia's PT Pinto Deli.
WOOT!

Beetles take Bite of Alberta, Ont Mill wants Smarter Workers

Climate change deniers, who seem to abound in Alberta, get to feel the bite of the Northern Pine Beetle as yet another mild winter is causing an explosion there of infestation.

Spring survey results released this week are showing that high numbers of the beetles survived the winter across much of southwest Alberta and in several pockets in west-central Alberta.
Two years ago, beetles had attacked 19,000 trees in Alberta. A year ago, the figure was three million. Besides threatening an estimated $23 billion worth of timber in Alberta forests, officials worry about potential changes to the watershed, leading to more run-off and flooding.

Ontario Mill now sets Grade 12 standard:

When Red Rock Mill Inc. reopens the mill in Red Rock, Ontario in 2009 (to manufacture the Multiply line), all employees will need to have their grade 12 for safety reasons.

According to Red Rock's labour adjustment centre, roughly 40% of workers who were laid off from mill closures in Nipigon and Red Rock over the last few years didn't finish high school.

Mill manager Mike Shusterman said Thursday that some workers who would normally be hired in a flash because of their solid work history, won't qualify if they don‘t have Grade 12.

It ain't that hard!
Mills here should strictly enforce GR 12 or better on all new hires, there's no way some kid who won't finish school should be taking a job away from one who will. No way a Supervisor should consider hiring someone without the ambition to even graduate!

--both stories in foresttalk.com

Booked your Moving Van yet? More wait and see...

The courst have granted P&T another extension on the sale of their 3 BC mills. They now have until July 7th to gather offers.
Hurry up and wait some more, which should be adopted as a motto for our town where absolutely nothing, ever, comes to a speedy conclusion.
The delays have been so numerous the P&T sale has become un-newsworthy in the major papers, like "Dog Bites Man".
Read about it here in the PG Citizen, or here on opinion250, or here on foresttalk.com financial news if you really want to get further depressed.
Worker options have been reduced to move or hope that this area of BC will be granted the status of some isolated Newfoundland outport and grant EI extensions. The second option carries with it the warning that even with an EI extension, that too will be run out by the time the mill becomes operational again.

Milligan Files Enviro Assessment

Terrane Metals has filed their project assessment, the next step is to file to initiate the statuatory review period.
Read the article, they even mention some workers will be living in the Fort.
----opinion250.com

P&T's Halsey Oregon mill was flogged for $24 million yesterday to Ableco Finance LLC.
---Portland Journal

Mackenzie takes another kick in the 'nads as CANFOR announces an indefenite shutdown of it's mill there, throwing another 200 people out of work
---opinion250.com

Canada Paid for US Timber 'Slush Fund'

From the 2006 Softwood Lumber Deal:

"much of the $1 billion the Canadian negotiators relinquished to the United States has been used to reward the American lumber industry and other friends of President George Bush's administration. Concerns the money would be used for a slush fund may well have been fulfilled."

But wait, it's not that at all...

"We don't like where the money went," said Peter Goldman, the director and managing attorney of the Washington Forest Law Center. "I personally would not call it a political slush fund; I'd call it a timber industry slush fund."

So let's keep in mind the figure $129 million doled out to help Forestry across all Canada. And look at what got dispersed:

$500 million to the Coalition for Fair Lumber Imports, the American lobby group that sparked the latest round in the softwood lumber dispute in the first place

FOUR TIMES as much directly to 'the enemy'

$200 million to the U.S. Endowment for Forestry and Communities, an organization created to receive the funds and dominated by timber industry executives

Almost twice as much to AMERICAN forestry, AMERICAN communities, controlled by the very people who started this.

$150 million to the American Forest Foundation, which "promotes the interests of small forest landowners"

More to AMERICAN small forest owners than ALL of Canada got.
--- figures from Andrew Macleod's story in The Tyee

So when we see Dick Harris's smiling face in the paper as he hands over a niggardly $130,000 to talk us into being farmers, WTF are we doing cheering him? It's a slap in the face to the Fort's mill workers, and the electors that supported this clown. Let's keep that in mind if an election is called. You want to support a gov't of sycophants who'll willingly give 1,200 times as much to the American Forest Foundation as they'll give to you? Let's tack on the $2 million to train people for jobs that aren't here and recalculate. That's only 75 times as much to the A.F.F. alone. 250 times as much to C.O.F.I. the bastards who crippled our whole Industry.
Is this the type of 'representation' you deserve? The figures make Chretien's Adscam look bush league. This is ONE BILLION dollars to the blackmailers, to keep up the blackmail, because they're too chicken to stand up for their own country!

June 10 - Big Day - New Possibilities

June 10 is the day potential buyers of Pope & Talbots mills must file by. Reports indicate six expressions of interest so far, and a Vancouver Sun report mentions the possibility of a seventh, by the investor behind the revival of Port Alice.
That one is interesting in that the overall plan would include $250 million investment to turn some of the wood and pulp waste into ethanol fuel instead of wasting food products for production, in the largest refinery in Canada!
Several interests include both the mill here and the pulp mill in Mackenzie.
-Read the whole story in the Sun

P&T Sale Opened to Other Buyers, Mackenzie On The Mind

BC Supreme Court ruled against AP&P and the sale of the Takla Mill is now open to other buyers. The Court ruled AP&P had it's chance, failed to close the deal and now has no right to try to claim the mill for a paltry $6 million. It will have to compete against any potentially higher offers from the open market. PricewaterhouseCooper (the bankruptcy trustee) says it has received 6 expressions of interest and thinks it can get a much better offer.
The Court will also be ruling on how much the Province of BC will be on the hook for cleanup should the mill, the one in Mackenzie and Harmac go down for good.
---here's the story reported by The Sun
Meanwhile Even Our Closest Neighbours Have Mackenzie On The Mind
as the Prince George Citizen headlines

Mackenzie hoping buyer will operate mill

then goes on to quote Mayor Rob MacDougall about the Fort St. James mill! Nice going, Rob! Not your fault for their mistake, but it shows what happens when one town screams, yells and hits the streets and the other town doesn't. Pretty obvious that a more activist approach should be endorsed at the next Council meeting.
More about the Court ruling is included in the Citizen article including this juicy tidbit:

PT Pindo Deli's lawyer Nicholas Hughes told the court during the hearing that his client should not be “tarred” for cancelling a separate deal with Pope & Talbot for three of its pulp mills. He also said if the deal goes ahead the Fort St. James mill could be operating in three months.
The receiver disputed that timeline as being too short considering other issues that needed to be resolved.

AP&P blowing smoke or confirmation that the troops will be out all summer even with the best possible result of all this. Explains why the govt's are considering EI extensions (a dole) but not considering shelling out money to hire the unemployed to clean out some of the deadwood.
---read the miscaptioned story

###########30#########

Gov't Take Over P&T?

Well yesterday's rally didn't seem to get beyond Prince George, with no major newspaper picking up the story. Diddly-squat on CTV news, a family of ducks was more important to them, while Global continues its obsession with Mackenzie.
Hers's a report from the PG Citizen that mentions the rally in passing while it interviews rally leader Winson Cheung for his idea of having the gov't run the mill while it finds a buyer. As Winson mentions, workers would work, the town would remain stable, and it would be cheaper in the long run that paying out EI for no results and watching the Fort die. Money from the operation may not be good until a buyer is found, but productivity and results from a closed mill and workers on EI is a complete zero.

Winson, you're an NDPer at heart or a True Liberal just like me. nfortunately Gordon Campbell et al. are not even close to Liberal. They're dyed-in-the-wool Tories masqeurading as Liberals, bent oon implementing free-market ideology on BC at any cost.
Let's never forget how a party so hell-bent on trashing the NDP they bad-mouthed the fast ferries even after they won their first election. Perhaps only to the public's surprise (not to theirs, they're chuck filled with car-salesman support), we discovered you couldn't sell those things for a nickel they'd been trashed so bad. Even when Nova Scotia companies were buying fast ferries from Australia!
Look back again at the Skeena Mill in Terrace. The prop-up by the NDP is now a neo-con legend as to how gov't intervention 'only messes up the inevitable'.
These people WANT the mills to go down. They WANT it to get so bad they can justify raw log exports and use the "at least the loggers are working, better than nothing" mantra that is bought buy so many of the richest per capita resource country in the world so easily. The few of us own so much, and we'll take the least we can get. That leaves the fewest of us few (or foreigners) to take the most they can get. THe core of neo-con ideology. I'm okay Jack, you can always work at Wendy's.
Terrace was devastated by the Skeena closure, it took years to recover and for a decade was a skeletal blight upn the town, a depressing reminder of what once was. Terrace has recovered, but it's geographical position as a central market for big-box outlets to draw from Terrace, Rupert, Kitimat and the Hazeltons was the only reason why. Some mines nearby HAVE opened, and are not mere promises. Had Skeena gone down on Day One, many of the residents would be gone. No workers to attract those big-box stores. No population to even consider the investment that did happen. The NDP bail-out bought time and saved that community!
So Winson, even though your idea makes the most common sense and is better for everyone all around, there's no hope of it being implemented.

The Fort Fights Back

After a disappointing start where no out of town reporters, politicians, and not too many protestors gathered here at Cottonwood Park, the voice of the community got to roar in Vanderhoof. The Roundtable on Forestry got to encounter it's first rally and paid for its snubbing of Fort St. James.


Photo and quotations from Opinion250.com

“We want to be part of the solution “ says rally organizer Winson Cheung a former employee of Pope and Talbot “We don’t think the meetings should be held behind closed doors.”
This session was supposed to have been held in Fort St. James, another of the B.C. communities hit hard by the downturn in the forest industry.

Pope and Talbot Dies Quietly

The tortuous death is finally over. Assets were put into receivership over the weekend and P&T's mills will be sold off to whoever, for whatever purpose by the bankruptcy trustees.
-----the SUN

Fort St. James and Mackenzie will each get $2 million from Victoria for retraining. For what and where is the big question. There aren't jobs for 250 welders here.....
----PG Citizen

Result of yesterday's court proceedings

At the end of yesterday's Pope & Talbot court proceedings, the decision was made to continue with the orderly shut down of the pulp mills while a new search is started for a buyer(s).

--foresttalk.com
The fate of Takla sawmill was not discussed. That was touched on in court May 5, where the proceedings of the sale were described as a "Monkey's Wedding". P&T is still hoping for a buyer, and there are persistent rumours they would like to sell the FSJ mill and the Mackenzie pulp mill as a package.
---this story also at foresttalk.com

Take out Dead Wood and Replant?

-image from opinion250.com shows disparity between replanting, the harvesting of beetlewood and the amount of beetlewood over the years.

Idea for Keeping Forestry Workers Working
John Betts, Executive Director of the Western Silvicultural Contractors Association has an idea. It boils down to using gov't money to remove the pine beetle killed wood, maximize replanting, and stockpile the wood so that it can be utilized later, for whatever purpose or buyer.
That would keep loggers and planters working, and could utilize out of work mill workers and keep them in the industry they're familiar with, in the area they live. It waould also greatly reduce the risk of fire and give a headstart on new growth as replanting is atrone of it's lowest levels in years.
--- more at opinion250.com
It would require the BC Liberals to loosen their policy of no intervention or direct public funding, but it appears to be the most common sense idea to come up yet.

The Price of Inaction

A Tale of Two Cities? The Lion and the Ghost?
What title can describe the completely different approaches taken by two small towns separated by a couple mountains, and the results of those approaches?
Mackenzie, a town that made sure to scream whenever it was pinched and is represented by a mainstay of the BC Liberal party, and Fort St. James which approached things with a "we're tough, we can handle this" stiff upper lip and represented by a Liberal newbie in a riding with a history of representatives who shot their mouths off before engaging their brain and paid the price, so has chosen to exist like a ghost on the backbench.
As some of us pointed out a few months back when Global TV ran a special on our town, the "we're coping; we're allright, Jack" portrayal ran the risk of viewers getting the idea that we don't need their help, we're just fine. And that's exactly what panned out!
Have a read here about the suffering of communities, workers and suppliers as Harmac and Mackenzie Pulp wind down their operations and note how P&Ts Fort St. James operation is not even mentioned.
We know all about the spin-off effects. Suppliers, truckers, retailers have already issued their own layoffs in answer to the reduced demand. Restaurants and pubs have become Dead Zones. Admit it, you yourself must have gone for dinner or a glass of draught and wondered "How can this place even stay open?" lately. Every small business remaining is bleeding openly, a drain on the owners pocketbook.
I wish there was a solution to offer. It's ten years too late to think a "shop local" campaign is going to be much help, because every closed shop from Burns Lake to here and Vanderhoof proves that even with $1.25 a litre gas, people won't.
The same $1.25 gas that's going to make it very hard to see tourism as any sort of salvation, or any form of secondary manufacturing because of delivery and supply costs. Add to the mix that the sale of BC Rail has come back to bite us in the arse, you can ask around and discover it's not worth CN's time to send trains here anymore, so how do we ship out anything while any possible new interim industry fires up?
We are entering very hard times, and as the locals have been bled out the only hope is to somehow attract outside investment into our community. As mentioned in the first paragraphs, screaming Blue Bloody Murder is how to get noticed in the first place. The squeaky wheel gets the grease, Mackenzie knows that!

As a community, we need to pull together and clean up this disgrace so after we scream and the investors arrive, they don't immediately leave in total disgust.
A free semi filled with paint and brooms from Victoria for the shopkeepers and homeowners.
A grant of money and immediate designation of somewhere outside of town as an alcohol and drug treatment facility.
A visit from the 1990s version of Gordon Campbell to stand in on a soapbox and say "We're allowing mining because we need the jobs, so STFU and bring your concerns to me and they'll be dealt with."
A zero tolerance by police and citizens towards drunkenness and drug induced behaviours. Scribble on one of the nicely painted walls? You spend 2 weeks sweeping the street and washing windows and your name goes in the paper so the whole town makes sure you do your punishment. Pass out in the middle of the street at noon? No more Christian "Oh you poor person", you're in the bunwagon dropped off at the treatment center, free to choose to sign yourself in or walk back home. Name in the paper: citizens have the right to know that not only were they put at risk, but that this particular person was so stupid they admitted to the cops they were high on crack and at the wheel.
That might be a start to turning things around....

Pope and Talbot Deal Crashes and Burns

Asia Pulp & Paper terminated a deal Friday to buy three pulp mills and a sawmill from insolvent Pope & Talbot, sending shockwaves through mills in British Columbia where the future of over 1,000 workers is now in jeopardy.
Pope & Talbot, a Portland-based company with most of its operations in B.C., has financing in place only until Monday to run its pulp mills at Harmac, Mackenzie and Halsey Oregon. A sawmill at Fort St. James is also affected but it is currently not operating.
Now the future of the mills depends on what happens Monday when Pope & Talbot returns to B.C. Supreme Court, said investment analyst Kevin Mason of Equity Research Associates.

-- story big enough to make Vancouver Sun!

Two things led to the collapse of the deal, US banks have finally figured out it os not a good risk to lend money to someone who's defaulted on $14 billion (as speculated here), and the gov't of Indonesia has allowed APP to strip mine the forests at home.
We're hooped.
Perhaps that local consortium should offer $5 million, if they feel it's even worth that in the shape the current market is in. There's a very small window of hope when P&T returns to BC Supreme Court, but don't expect any help to come from Victoria. Liberal policy was set once they opposed using public funds to keep Skeena in Terrace alive. They won't send a penny to help out.
Book your moving van now. The only people staying here will be those of us who live here by choice and those who live here with no choice.

Wait and Wait and Wait Some More

Pope & Talbot's sale of its pulp mills to PT Pindo Deli, including its mill in Mackenzie and its sawmill in Fort St. James, have failed to meet an April 30 deadline.
However, Pope & Talbot spokesman Mark Rossolo said Thursday the transactions are still planned to go ahead.
Rossolo noted that company's bankruptcy financing has been extended to May 5.
The Fort St. James sawmill has been closed since mid-October. It has put about 280 sawmill workers off the job in Fort St. James,

---- PG Citizen
If you're one of those 280 with a family, with as little as three or four EI cheques remaining what do you do? Wait for the kids to finish school and wait some more?
Risk spending the summer on Welfare, still waiting?
Make the arrangements to leave now and give yourself a minimum hedge with that remaining EI while you seek work elsewhere?
Or wait, wait and wait some more, and hope for the best? How long will it take to recoup from 9 months without work?
How will the mill itself cope with many of it's skilled staff who have already made the choice and left, and many more poised to?

What of the lackadaisical response of our town and its people to this crisis? Subdued, resigned, 'stiff upper lippers' who proved once again that inaction is worth 1,000 words of shame? We've proven ourselves forever to be a place that rises to the occasion when a family or person needs help. What have we done when the entire town does?
Where are the letters to the Editor, the ringing of the phones in our MLA and MP's offices? The street marches and the marches on Victoria and Ottawa who could have aided a solution? Too late, we hear the voices of S.T.R.O.N.G. on what we should have done six months ago.

A Few Details on WHY...

Why the P&T delays? The US is a little annoyed over APP's record, one of it's agencies first wants $104 million it's owed out of $14 BILLION in loans APP defaulted on in 2001.
--link

Meanwhile, Staples has turfed APP products from it's line over environmental issues.
--link

We're being asked to have faith, but the Devil We Knew (Canfor) is looking good in retrospect! But Time Has Been Called... one month... May ... either P&T opens, Mt Milligan issues are completely resolved OR ELSE.
June 1st, as the school year ends, every out of work family will have to choose. Walk away and start again somewhere else this summer (before the EI runs out too), or sit here 'having faith' in parties and corporations who have so far failed to show they deserve any.
One month to STFU and clearly state: this is what we want, we want it NOW, do we get it or not.

More Delays Ahead for P&T Sale?

Pope & Talbot's sale of Mackenzie and Nanaimo pulp mills, and a Fort St. James sawmill to an Indonesian-based company are expected to be complete by end of the month, but there are issues to be resolved, according to the latest PricewaterhouseCoopers monitor's report of the company's bankruptcy.
The report, filed on Monday, notes there are several outstanding issues that may delay closings of one or more of the transactions beyond April 30.
....
There are similar issues around the sale of the Fort St. James sawmill, and the report notes that several meetings between the government, various First Nations and PT Pindo Deli have also been scheduled this week over that transaction.
---full text PG Citizen
MEANWHILE:
The unlogged trees dying from the pine beetle will be responsible for releasing 1 billion tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere, more than Canada's entire transport sector.
Here's a short version of a CBC report from Opinion250.com
While the feet drag, the worse things get!

Now P&T Sale Drags On.........

Well we're used to it, everything dragging on and on and on. Nothing in the Fort ever comes to a quick, decisive conclusion. The last post on Deadwood Chronicles contained the mine's disclosure of a 2012 date for full operation when our whole town was led along to expect a 2010 date.
Today, it's reported "paperwork" issues will delay the sale of P&T, which we were all awaiting Friday, until the end of the month.
Well we live with this every day. As we hear around town, everything is slow. We even 'only pay' for overnight courier service here. We'll put on our phoney smile and revel in the photo on the front page of our local rag that both levels of government combined have managed to cough up enough money to almost buy one of those P&T worker's foreclosed homes so we can fill in the potholes and make new sidewalks to panhandle on.
----story from opinion250.com

Favorable Report for Milligan

Terrane Metals announced on Monday that the final feasibility study for its Mount Milligan project near Mackenzie favours it as economically and environmentally sound.
Terrane still must conclude negotiations with local first nations and obtain environmental approvals from the federal and provincial governments.
It will also need financing.

Pending those approvals, the mine could be in commercial production by early 2012, Terrane president and CEO Rob Pease said in an interview.
So much for "next spring"??
--excerpt from Vancouver Sun

Saving Communities Group to hold Meet in the Fort

S.T.R.O.N.G. is a Northern Ontario nonprofit group from a dozen communities in Northern Ontario. Its main objective is to prevent the destruction, dismantling and ongoing depopulation of Northern Ontario communities that is happening as a result of poor or discriminatory government policies, as well as the failure of multinational corporations to adapt, reinvest and innovate in Northern Ontario by adding value to the region’s raw resources.
The President of the group, Al Simard will be at CNC in Fort St. James to talk about the experiences which are very similar to ours.
"Despite contributing enormously to provincial government coffers, both regions have a profound sense of alienation from the provincial legislatures and corporate boardrooms to the South."
Mark this on your calendar:
Fort St. James:
7pm, Monday, April 21
Fort St. James Campus, College of New Caledonia
Simard is also scheduled to speak in Prince George and Mackenzie
--- full story from Opinion 250

Project Endurance

Canfor is embarking on Project Endurance, a plan to run Apr 1 2008 - Apr 1 2009 to reduce all costs by 10%. It's also asking contractors to follow along. As in the near future, they'll be 'enduring' rising fuel costs and a newly imposed Carbon Tax, it means they are being asked to submit 10% lower bids when costs will be higher than they are now. We realize Canfor's lost $360 million last ear, but really, how much are people supposed to endure? Proposing that if people suffer even more, things will improve? Or shall they suffer even more before the inevitable end?
This ring's with all the promise of George Bush's Iraqi "Enduring Freedom", a really bad choice of name to tag the Canfor project with.
--- read full story on Opinion250.com

Courts Approve P & T Sale

The sale of our local P & T mill has cleared the BC Supreme Court and U.S. Bankruptcy courts and is now awaiting regulator clearance.
The $6 million sale to Sinarmas Group is the sorry end to Pope & Talbots $39 million star acquisition from Canfor, and there is no mention of future plans from the new owner.
-- more info from the PG Citizen

Chief Warns Mt. Milligan

Nakazdli Chief Fred Sam warned Mt. Milligan not to toot it's own horn so much until it settles matters like jobs and revenue sharing with the local Nakazdli Nation.

"This proposal by Terrane at Shus Nadloh requires the free, prior and informed consent of our people and the discussions with the Crown and the company are not proceeding well," asserted Sam.

Shus Nadloh is the First Nation's name for Mount Milligan.

Sam said if the company, mining association and the province keep ignoring the Nak'azdli's rights, the project will not get to the construction phase.

Sam reiterated that the Nakazdli Band is not opposed to the mine.
--- full text PG Citizen

Millgan touted as "Next mine to open in BC"

The Mount Milligan gold and copper project, north of Prince George, was named among the leading contenders to be the next mine to open in B.C. by provincial mining officials.

Speaking to reporters by tele-conference Tuesday from a major international mining convention in Toronto, Dan Jepsen, the CEO of the Association of Mineral Exploration B.C, said it was a "no-brainer" to develop Terrane Metal's Mount Milligan project, which had been permitted once already, that time under Placer Dome.

---PG Citizen

Milligan News

This year is expected to be a "breakout year" for the Mount Milligan gold and copper mine near Mackenzie, says an official at Terrane Metals.

During a Thursday presentation to the Fraser-Fort George Regional District board, Glen Wonders said the Milligan site, unlike most mines in B.C., does not pose infrastructure challenges. It's accessible via Fort St. James and Mackenzie with low-cost power nearby
---- PG Citizen

"Fire Sale" Describes Price For Pope & Talbot Mill

The $6 million price revealed for the sale of P&T's mill in the Fort has been described as a 'Fire Sale' in the PG Citizen. Talk persists around town that a bid by a local consortium was over 4 times that price.
Is $6 million the price realized after debts or the total price? That seems to be a fair question that has not been clarified.
There are now many questions to be answered. A suggestion that it may be run at a loss to provide wood chips and a writeoff for the pulp mill in Mackenzie is made in the Citizen article.
But at such a low value, an asset stripping could be viable as well that would see the land and equipment sold off and the wood trucked direct to Mackenzie. The town must stand united to make sure that doesn't happen!
---PG Citizen article

Boxing Day Sawmill Sale!

You'd think Sinar Mas was lined up at 6 a.m. on Boxing Day when the sale prices of two sawmills were disclosed. The Fort St. James mill was grabbed for $6 million, about a quarter of the amount making the rounds in the local rumour mill.
Nothing will happen until the sale is approved by US and Canadian bankruptcy courts, so here's to another three months of hurry up and wait.
--from opinion250.com

Sinar Mas Gets P&T Sawmill

This post has been delayed as I was trying to get some confirmed details in writing, but it's pretty much known that the Pope & Talbot sawmill in Fort St. James will be in foreign hands as they (Sinar Mas) were the successful bidder.
Sinar Mas is the Indonesian owner of Asia Pulp and Paper. It also has holdings in finance, agricultural chemicals, food and properties.
They also purchased the pulp mill in Mackenzie, the Harmac mill in Vancouver and a mill in Oregon.
Will workers get spicy satays with peanut sauce instead of turkey certificates next Christmas? Time will tell....
-from opinion250.com

Feds Offer Chump Change

The federal Conservative government announced another $6.5 million Friday to help stop the spread of the mountain pine beetle epidemic in B.C.
This is about equivalent to the amount P&T workers in Fort St. James have lost in payroll alone since October. Or to the amount those workers plus (pick any one mill in Mackenzie's workers) would have paid in income taxes this winter.
It's somewhat disheartening the Harper government will not invest the equivalent amount it will spend to lease tanks for Afghanistan, purchase one fighter or transport plane, let alone subsidize a splashy show for the Olympics to aid BC's main industry.
The only bright spot is that they are at least not yet signing Free Trade deals for Siberian lumber, so we're not as shafted as those thousands of laid off Ontario auto workers.
---PG CITIZEN LINK

Emerson's Skewed Reality

Trade Minister David Emerson spoke of the "tangible benefits" of the Softwood Lumber Agreement as he doled out a portion of the fees collected to six of the Provinces. Emerson's perception of a benefit must be as skewed and distorted as his perception of democracy, which leaves one wondering what the man is doing in Cabinet instead of in psychiatric care.
Over 50 sawmills have closed and 6,500 workers have lost their jobs in 2007 due to a combination of the high dollar, low demand, and the softwood lumber duties. The forest sector is reeling in one of it's lowest points in modern history.
Emerson, elected as a Liberal in a Vancouver riding, crossed the floor to the Conservatives before Parliament sat, a move unprecedented in Canadian Parliamentary history. Only 17% of the voters in his riding voted Conservative, and Emerson was quoted saying that he left the Liberals as he could not accept their near deal on softwood as it contained a duty, which he suddenly supported and rammed through as a Conservative.
The agreement gives the US lumber industry incredible veto power over how the money the duty collects is spent, and much of it is being used for retraining workers to leave the industry.
It is my opinion that any supposed 'unfair trade advantages', (a claim repeatedly lost by the Americans during the original dispute) have been totally negated by the rise in the Canadian dollar and are therefore invalid. Tear up the Agreement unilaterally and wait for the US to respond. Use the money collected to fund any challenges, to advertise direct to the American public the fact this trade dispute is denying them low cost building supplies and earn some respect from the US Gov't by standing up to them. Americans respect strength far more than they respect the brown-nosing lap dog approach taken by Stephen Harper and the Conservatives.
--- full article from the Sun

Wind Farm for the Fort?

C-Free Power is looking into developing a wind farm near Fort St. James. It will be near Stuart River Provincial Park just outside of the Fort - full article PG Citizen

P & T Sells Pulp Mills

Pope & Talbot has found a buyer for the Mackenzie Pulp mill, but as of yet nothing for the sawmill here in the Fort - from the PG Citizen

Mt. Milligan: Environmental Review Begins

The environmental review for Terrane's Mt. Milligan mine begins today with a public comment period slated Jan 12 0 Feb 11th. The review is expected to last 3 or 4 months.
It's interesting to note that financial plans were made with gold at $550 oz, copper at $2.50 lb. while this week copper and gold are trading at $860 and $3.13.
Full article in the PG Citizen

Maybe Mackenzie Pulp Mill, No Interest In The Fort

It is reported that Asia Pacific may be interested in acquiring the Pope & Talbot Pulp mill in Mackenzie, but still no buyers interested in the sawmills in Fort St James or Midway. There may be more news possibly by the end of the week. From PG Citizen.