Coun. Corinne Lonsdale, who led the charge to re-open Interfor's Squamish Lumber mill five years ago, says Squamish council and the Economic Development Officer need to do more to attract industrial jobs.
Lonsdale said in a letter to The Chief after she heard the latest job loss news and in the letter she expressed concerns about the loss of more local industrial jobs (see page 14 for the complete text).
"Wages earned by mill employees are family supporting and above the norm for our area today," Lonsdale wrote. "Of late we have let too many family-supporting jobs disappear without a fight. We have an EDO [economic development officer], who along with Council and other community agencies need to work harder at keeping and attracting more jobs of that calibre."
Lonsdale is the chair of the Select Committee on Forestry and Industrial Land Strategy and was mayor during the mill's year-long closure in 1998-99. She was cited by provincial government, union and industry officials as a key mover in getting the mill re-opened at the time.
Mayor Ian Sutherland said the announcement came as a shock to him and to the community despite the fact that it was clear that this was an option for Interfor. Sutherland said he told Interfor that it wouldn't be good for the community if Interfor kept hanging on to the mill and let it sit idle for a long period.
"We've all known for a long time that the Interfor situation in Squamish was in a precarious position," Sutherland said. "It [Squamish Lumber] has been closed more than it has been open lately."
In defence of the EDO, Sutherland said it is a good thing Squamish hired an EDO and is actively trying to diversify the economy. "We can't control what companies do," Sutherland said. "They make business decisions.
"We're tying to attract business but you don't do that overnight. Lee [Malleau, Squamish's EDO] is trying very hard to attract business," the mayor said.
Sutherland said that the problems in the forest industry were not created in the last two years. He added that the problems weren't created by the current council.
The mayor said he and others did all they could to keep the mill jobs in Squamish.
Lonsdale, Sutherland, Interfor and Harry Bains of the International Wood and Allied Workers of Canada (IWA) were all united in their praise of the mill workers and their attempts to keep the mill operating.
"The work that Ron Sander and Doc Halliday and the plant committee did was outstanding," said Sutherland. "At the end of the day it didn't happen but I personally take my hat off to Ron and the union guys. They did their best to make it happen."
Duncan Davies, Interfor's President and Chief Executive Officer, thanked the crew in Squamish "for their hard work and their service".
Bains said it was a sad day for the workers and he too saluted their efforts to keep the mill in operation.
"Instead of using confrontational methods they tried to work with the company to make this mill efficient," Bains said. "They bent over backward to meet the company requests because they wanted to protect their jobs."
After praising the workers, Bains lashed out at the province's political leaders.
"The provincial government is partly to blame because they are de-linking the tree farm licences from their plants," Bains said. "There's no social contract to these companies for using public timber that is given to them.
"Companies can have everything and the workers have nothing."
