The District of Clearwater (DOC) has been busy working on various issues resulting from the closure of Canfor’s Vavenby mill, meeting with government and forest industry officials in an attempt to soften the blow rippling through the community.
Mayor Merlin Blackwell recently met with Forest Minister Doug Donaldson, trying to find new employment opportunities for some of those who were laid off from the Vavenby site.
“We got across the points about what we need for this community—one of the ones we really need to focus on now is to get some wildfire fuel mitigation grants going here because we need to actually start helping human beings,” said Blackwell.
“Minister Donaldson is genuinely concerned with what’s happening to us, and expressed much sympathy for what our forest workers are going through; after a long chat with him and with his staff, I feel confident the provincial government has several strong teams of very smart people working behind the scenes to help us.”
Blackwell previously noted wildfire fuel mitigation could be a source of roughly 60 new jobs with millions of dollars worth of work in Wells Gray Park alone.
IMAGE: BC Local News
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