There’s apparently not much that can be done, but the Province through its Minister of Forests expressed his frustration and disappointment over the slow state of progress in putting the Skeena pulp mill site back into action.
Appearing in Terrace, the Minister Rich Coleman said that the process seemed too embroiled in a network of administration and bureaucracy. He also said he didn’t think that the Chinese owned company would be opening the doors on Watson Island anytime soon.
He did suggest that province would consider other forestry matters in the Northwest to try to help the industry progress, including construction of logging roads, exploring new projects such as the Houston Pellet factory, looking into energy generation with BC Hydro and continuing with the process of raw log sales.
That last idea might run up against a bit of resistance in the Northwest, it’s not particularly of benefit to the region to just ship the logs away without any form of processing, jobs as well as a vital resource leave the region without a great deal of benefit to those that work in the Northwest. But one suspects that the raw logs will continue to be shipped out, at least until times improve or Sun Wave decides what its plans are.
A full report on Coleman’s visit to Terrace was provided by the Terrace Standard.
Lack of pulp mill action disappoints forests boss Rich Coleman
By ROD LINK
The Terrace Standard
Feb 21 2007
PROVINCIAL FORESTS minister Rich Coleman doesn’t hold out much hope Chinese state-owned Sun Wave Forest Products is going to open its moth balled Prince Rupert pulp mill anytime soon.
“It’s a bit frustrating. I don’t see anything happening,” said Coleman of the operation which has sat idle for going on six years.
Sun Wave, in a complicated series of transactions, completed its purchase of both the mill and the land out of bankruptcy last year.
A substantial amount of wood used to be tied to the mill but it is now in the hands of a Tsimshian-owned company.
The mill was once part of the Skeena Cellulose network in the northwest. Along with the Terrace Lumber Company mill in Terrace, now being torn apart, the Carnaby mill in the Hazeltons, which has already been dismantled, and a mill in Smithers, the network was once an economic powerhouse.
Sun Wave sold the one remaining forest licence in the Kitwanga area last year to the Gitxsan and a mountain of chips at the idle Rupert mill to pulp and paper maker Pope and Talbot at Nanaimo.
Coleman thinks Sun Wave is embroiled in a network of administration and bureaucracy.
“They’re not even talking about money. They’re not as active as I’d like them to be,” he said.
But the minister is offering a bit of hope to the struggling northwest forest industry by asking his senior people to come up with ideas to get people back to work.
It could take the form of building logging roads to forest stands or other measures, said Coleman.
“Whatever the opportunity, it has to fit in with our fiscal plan,” he said of his ministry spending goals for the new fiscal year beginning April 1.
At the same time, Coleman has extended the ability of companies to export whole raw logs.
It’s been a traditional way for governments to provide some sort of economic gain for forest companies.
That kind of boost is even more critical for this area because the mixture of low value pulp logs versus high value saw logs is heavily weighted to the former.
It means loggers want to earn as much as they can by selling saw logs in order to balance off low returns by selling pulp.
Coleman has also seized on the emerging bio-energy market as one use for low value wood.
He points to the new Houston Pellet operation in Houston which is soon to start exporting pellets to Europe from the Prince Rupert port.
“I’ve been encouraging my people and other people to think out of the box,” said Coleman.
He also thinks there might be potential to burn wood in this province to create electricity and anticipates some proposals to emerge when B.C. Hydro begins asking for suggestions later this year.
© Copyright 2007 Terrace Standard
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