After reading “Forest minister sees opportunity,” I felt compelled to write.
I believe a sawmill in Campbell River would be a wonderful idea. Further to that I would suggest maybe to offer a company a Tree Farm License with a supply of trees to mill into lumber.
There is one called TFL 47 that was given to CrownZellerbach in 1950 in exchange for jobs. This timber was to be processed at a pulp and paper mill to be built in Duncan Bay. In 1956, they added a sawmill to also produce lumber instead of turning all this fibre into pulp. This mill ran until 2008.
The first plan was a revolutionary idea and created a lot of jobs. This was the core of the town of Campbell River for 50 plus years.
Skip ahead to 2012...now a company called Timberwest (one of the largest raw log exporters in North America) owns the rights to this government timber (approximately 221,151 hectares).
At the moment, they cut down the trees, roll them onto a ship and export them to our friends down south and in the east. This corporation does not even own a sawmill.
How do you think this could have happened? That someone can cut and export our trees? I realize this must create about two jobs per tree, but perhaps we could get a little more value from our children’s land.
Jim Erickson, Campbell River