–Files by George Henderson, My Cariboo Now
It’s not the news that workers or the City of Quesnel were hoping for.
Millar Western has announced the indefinite curtailment of Quesnel River Pulp.
Mayor Coralee Oakes says they are deeply disappointed.
“First and foremost of course our thoughts are with the employees, the contractors and the families. Of course we’ve been through closures before and we know, especially with the affordability challenges, that this comes at a very, very difficult time for many families in the community.”
Oakes says it will also have a significant impact on the city and its finances moving forward.
“I’ve already had conversations with Premier elect Lorne Doerkson to discuss what some of those impacts look like at the initial stage. I’ve also had conversations with MP (Todd) Doherty and we will be setting up meetings with him later this week to look at a number of things. First I want the community members to know that we will be, I’ve had the calls with the ministry to activate the transition teams, you know as a community we’re familiar with those teams. But secondly, we are going to fight to make sure that our community receives the same types of supports that are happening right now in eastern Canada. Whether it’s the supports that communities and workers have received in the auto sector, or steel and aluminum. We’re going to make sure that those same levels of supports are coming to our region.”
Oakes says people are also going to require some assistance.
“We are going to require assistance for the people living here to make sure that one, they can get access to some of the training, and two, we’ve got a lot of questions of the company. We’ve reviewed the letter that they’ve sent out around indefinite curtailment and we have got a lot of questions, and we’ll be making sure we’ll be asking some very pointed questions in the days ahead.”
When asked about how much of a financial impact it will have on the city, Oakes said that it was still too early to put a dollar figure on it.
“It is a significant impact and what we are in the process of understanding, it’s not just this curtailment that has impacts. It has a trickle down effect and of course it impacts some other things so it’s a little bit early to, and I want to be transparent with the community and the taxpayers of what these impacts will look like. It is significant, it’s early days and we will be coming out and being transparent with the community on what that full impact will be in the days ahead.”
We asked Oakes if there was any talk about a different company perhaps purchasing the mill and keeping it going.
“These are the exact type of questions that we want to have. First of all we know and I had that conversation with Premier-elect Lorne Doerkson, that they have set forward the 45 million cubic metre targets for British Columbia. This announcement today is going to have a significant impact on the province meeting those targets, so we want to have that conversation. We want to have the conversation around the impacts around BC Hydro. What I can share is that the city does receive a revenue portion or grant back to the city because of the operations of Quesnel River Pulp. The impact of that I can share is between 100 to 150 thousand, that’s a 1% tax shift that we’re looking at, so when we start looking at some of these impacts, there are revenue sources in multiple areas that are going to be impacted.”
Oakes says they are going their homework to make sure that as a team, they are making sure that they are protecting the interests of Quesnel taxpayers.
She says they will be working with their partners at both the provincial and federal levels to make sure that the supports are in place for the employees and their families and the town.
Millar Western announced back in August that there would be a “temporary” shutdown at Quesnel River Pulp.
The company cited “ongoing market challenges and the application of significant tariffs on Chinese exports” as the reasoning behind the decision.
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