In pre-election campaign NDP Premier told I.W.A. workers that his goverment would challenge the industry to create thousands of new jobs in exchange for access to fibre. To his left is former Forests Minister Dennis Streifel. Clark plans to push forest industry for 21,000 more jobs Before the B.C. election was called, NDP Premier Glen Clark announced some initiatives to increase jobs in the value-added sector of the forest indus- try. On April 17 the Premier was at the Lindal Cedar homes mill site in New Westminster to explain the govern- ment’s strategy. In late March the government chal- lenged the forest companies to work cooperatively to create another 21,000 jobs in the next five years. A compre- hensive value added strategy is a vital part of the plan. “One of the key challenges in B.C. and anywhere is creating jobs,” Clark said to a crowd which included Local 1-3567 members and executive offi- cers. “The people in B.C. own the trees, not the forest companies...we own the trees.” E “In order to get access to that tim- ber, we have to challenge the industry to create more jobs,” he said. “Rather than just cutting them (the trees) down and making them into 2x4’s or worse, into cants and export- ing them to Japan...(it’s time) to make them into finished products, high val- ue products, with high quality work- manship that can be sold at a high dol- lar to generate income and wealth and jobs here in British Columbia.” Clark outlined three reasons why the province does not have more val- ue-added jobs. He said that access to timber, lack of skilled workers, and fi- nancial assistance are the major ob- stacles to getting more value out of the industry. He said that, by and large, the large forest companies have the timber tied up and that access to it is much tougher for smaller value-added and remanufacturing operations. He said that now about one-third of Small Business Enterprise Program (SBEP) wood is set aside for companies in a bid proposal system. He announced that the government is creating a bias into the bid proposal system that will favour companies that are either creating or adding jobs and that the highest bidder will be less important in that process. “That will be a significant move to create more jobs and make sure that fiber is available to companies like Lindal, so that they can expand here in B.C.,” added the Premier. Clark said that the government is putting pressure on the major forest companies to ensure that wood is available to independents. On the topic of skills, Clark said: “To work in this kind of business, we need people with the right skills who can work productively. There’s some evidence that value added opera- tions...have difficulty attracting skilled labour.” On the issue of financing, he said that banks and other lending institu- tions must be encouraged to lend money to slightly more risky ventures inB.C. KEY ROLE FOR FOREST RENEW- AL B.C. With regards to skills and seed capi- tal, the premier said that Forest Re- newal B.C.(FRBC) will play a signifi- cant role. This government Crown corporation is being fed by stumpage increases that are bringing in about $400 million per year. “We said we’re not going to take that money and put it into education or welfare or government. We're going to put every penny of it into the forest industry and we're going to do it ina way that forest companies and unions and environmentalists and others thinks makes sense.” Clark announced that FRBC will be providing some seed capital to new value-added businesses. “With announcements like this, with working with industry but also challenging industry to create jobs, by making sure that they don’t get access to our trees unless they create jobs, we believe that the future of British Columbia is still very bright for the forest industry.” Roger Stanyer, chairman of FRBC, was on hand to give some further de- tails about how the Crown corpora- tion would assist. He said that a value- added committee worked on initiatives to increase access to fibre and that a workforce committee looked at training and retraining ini- tiatives. Stanyer outlined a new FRBC initia- tive called the Forest Community Business Program with is designed to make it easier for small and medium sized companies to access capital and put together business plan. Compa- nies will be able to get up to $250,000 in start-up loans from a credit en- hancement fund. In addition, loans of up to $75,000 will be make available through a Forest Community Loans Funds. All of this should be on line soon. FRBC is going to build a new skills acquisition centre in Abottsford in a partnership agreement with the B.C. Wood Specialties Group. FRBC will spend up to $10 million over the next 5 years to pay course fees, travel and room and board for workers. Stanyer said that workers from across the province will be brought in to train on new equipment as it is made available and the program will ensure that peo- ple do have the skills to do the job in the value-added sector. The training will focus on value added processes after kiln drying until finishing. Priority will be put on bringing in people who are working at value- added operations, unemployed work- ers identified by FRBC and unem- ployed B.C. residents who have a job lined up after training. The centre, which should be up and running by September of this year, will also provide an extension pro- gram where training can take place in the mills where the equipment is avail- able. Stanyer also announced that FRBC is assisting five value-added associa- tions with almost $700,000 in funding over the next year. The associations will hire consultants and spend an ad- ditional $50,000 to conduct needs analyses to identify new trends in the industry and market niches. The FRBC chairman also said that it is giving $500,000 to the B.C. Wood Specialties Group to assist in the mar- keting of value-added building sup- plies in Japan. That program began in March and April when crates of value- added products were shipped to Osa- ka and Tokyo. Complete housing units are now on display with B.C. made wall panel, staircases, cedar decking, floor panel, doors and handrails. It is hoped that marketing efforts such as this will help B.C. producers gain more of the $80 billion per year mar- ket in Japan. “We believe that, through these ini- tiatives and others, that will be com- ing through Forest Renewal, that we can be a great deal a part of the chal- lenge of creating 20,000 plus jobs over the next five years,” added Stanyer. LINDAL CEDAR HOMES The announcement was staged at. Lindal Cedar Homes for a very good reason. It’s the kind of operation that the province needs more of. Dave Tones, President of I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-3567, said that the union and Lindal have been working together over a long period of time to create and stabilize jobs in the Lower Mainland. “We expect that there will be a bet- ter future for our members with an- nouncements like this,” said Brother Tones. “Fibre supply and logs are a key part of our success in the future.” “Value added is not a panacea for job creation but it is certainly, in my mind, the most important aspect of job creation and is crucial to our fu- ture in the forest industry.” Lindal breaks down cedar logs into lumber and dried, planed product. It puts together complete homes with blue prints for assembly and ships them out to markets in Canada, the United States, Australia and Japan. The average home shipped out weighs about 90-100,000 pounds and measures about 3,000 square feet when assembled. The package includes mostly 2 x 6 construction, doors, windows, hard- ware, and roofing materials, etc. The only thing not included is the founda- tion, wiring and plumbing. The company sells through a dealer franchise network that markets the packages and the blueprints which are shipped out to the job site. The operation, which began in 1963, is set for expansion as the company plans to close one of its operations in the United States and set up a planer and chop saw line on the New West- minster mill site. That should add over 30 jobs to the existing payroll of 50 union employ- ees. But all of this is contingent on Lindal getting a dependable supply of wood. Bob Lindal was on hand to praise the government for its initiatives and said “we've been very interested in the policies of the government to encour- age value added and remanufactur- ing...” “It’s been clear to us (as it is to) many other people in industry that the future of the value added, remanufac- turing industry in western red cedar, is here in British Columbia,” said Mr. Lindal. ¢ FRBC funding will be provided to ensure that more workers have skills need- ed in value added sector. LUMBERWORKER/JUNE 1996/7