District of Mackenzie municipal representatives dished up some advice to the Village of Burns Lake mayor and council during a special meeting of council recently.
Mackenzie Mayor, Stephanie Killam, chief administrative officer, Mark Fercho, councillor Pat Crook and economic development officer Diane Smith arrived in Burns Lake to offer some suggestions on how their community coped with the temporary loss of a Canfor mill in June 2008.
The sawmill was the last large forest products operation remaining in the town of 4,500 and more than 200 workers were laid off indefinitely as a result. This was also on the heels of two other sawmills owned by Abitibi-Bowater, a paper mill and a Pope and Talbot pulp mill closing in the area within a period of six months, putting more than 1,000 members of Mackenzie's workforce out of work. A total of 300 loggers were also affected by the industry closures. However in July 2009 as a result of growing demand from across the Pacific, Canfor reopened the Mackenzie mill
To help, the District of Mackenzie offered the mill a tax reduction saving the company $100,000 a year. The province also lowered the price of fibre after finding anomalies in the inputs into its stumpage formulations.
Jobs Tourism and Innovation Minister Pat Bell said at the time, the reductions were in line with requirements of the Canada U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement.
Then, in April 2010 it was announced that Netherlands based Paper Excellence B.V., a unit of Indonesia's Sinar Mas Group, was to spend up to $40 million to put the pulp mill back into production, restoring more than 200 direct jobs at the mill and employment for more than 300 people in logging and other support services. The pulp mill was officially reopened on Aug. 17, 2010.
During the meeting Mayor Luke Strimbold summarized the local recovery projects and initiatives that are underway in Burns Lake following the Jan. 20, 2012 Babine Forest Products explosion and fire and he thanked the District of Mackenzie for offering their support and advice.
According to Mayor Killam, the District of Mackenzie was forced to change their priorities to focus solely on recovery efforts for a long period of time following the town’s succession of industry closures.
They said municipal staff workloads were doubled as a result, but more staff were not hired. The District of Mackenzie also reduced property taxes by five per cent and then by 10 per cent and the municipality has had a zero per cent tax increase for the last three years to help local residents cope with job losses.
District of Mackenzie management employees also took a voluntary five per cent pay cut, while other staff took a zero per cent pay increase until 2013.
They said Mackenzie residents and businesses were all encouraged to shop locally during the downturn, which they said, helped to keep the community afloat.
While there was no fund set up similar to the Burns Lake Tragedy Fund, they said they did have organized clothing drives and breakfast and lunch programs at schools. Food drives were also arranged.
They said they found the support of a grant writer through the Northern Development Initiative Trust to be useful in obtaining grant funding for community projects, which also helped to employ local residents.
A number of suggestions were made to village council by the District of Mackenzie, which included contacting BC Assessment to gauge the effect on local property assessments that the closure of Babine Forest Products may have and also suggested that council pressure the government to extend the allowable weeks of Employment Insurance assistance for displaced employees. They suggested that council should also review their proposed 2012 budget, predicting the worst case scenario that may face the community and then determine the priority projects that council should proceed with in their budget.
“I recommend that council and staff act as a collective unit in the eyes of the public to bring comfort and stability to the community,” Mayor Killam said.
Representatives also said they thought the situation the village of Burns Lake will face is likely more of a social impact than an economic impact.
In response to the statement, Mayor Luke Strimbold later said to Lakes District News, “I think a tragedy like this, the loss of jobs and the uncertainty does have social implications. Loss of jobs as well as those now having to leave their family for work will have a social impact on our community.”
He said, “Council is looking at all options that the District of Mackenzie carried out. Council and I found the meeting very beneficial. There was great information provided at the meeting, but more importantly we built a relationship with a strong community that has been successful in working on the impacts of their mill closure. Communication between local governments is key as we move forward. We are working with our staff to make sure they have the support they need as well as making sure that we collaborate to be as efficient as possible,” he said adding that if another opportunity arises to meet with the District of Mackenzie, the Village of Burns Lake council will accept.
“We will certainly utilize their expertise again. We are very thankful for their offer to come to our community and meet with us to provide support as well as their community and local government experience,” Mayor Strimbold added.