Premier John Horgan spoke today on the impact the BC wildfire had on the forest industry.
He says the NDP government is working closely with the Ministry of forests to get an idea of the damage the wildfire had on effected regions.
“The Chief Forester of course was making determinations on what the annual liable cut would be based on an expectation on a certain level of harvestable timber, that now is going to have to be re-written.”
The premier says he doesn’t want to pre-judge the work of the chief of forester, but in coming up with the annual cuts for the interior region he didn’t believe the fire effected the number that was presented to him.
The wildfire has destroyed 1.2 million hectares of land and mostly effected smaller communities in the interior.
As a result the NDP government has pumped money into winter tourism around those areas to help boost their economy.
Good news for the forest industry is lumber prices have reached a historic high and will help the province when imported to the United States.