Government funding has not resulted in keeping that portion (paper operations) of the (Crofton) mill running and Powell River town council cutting taxes didn’t help keep the mill running as it didn’t help when the employees gave up wages and benefits to keep the Powell River mill running.
They did the exact same thing in Powell River – downsize until they shut down. It’s all part of a plan they’ve had in the works for the last 20 years or so, back east they were talking about shutting down all west coast pulp and paper mills for years. That’s probably why Paper Excellence bought Domtar and Resolute Paper companies on the east coast for $5 billion.
Why was the B.C. government giving Paper Excellence millions to keep the mills running when they are just going to shut them down anyways and they have $5 billion to buy other companies with?
When is Paper Excellence going to come back to Powell River and deal with scrapping the old mill site and remediating the site? They can’t be allowed to just walk away from the mill site and not clean it up by taking it down to the cement foundation at the very least.
The company that had the Gold River mill took down the Gold River mill when it was closed. The same thing has to happen in Powell River, and then Crofton and Port Alberni when they close down those mill sites.
The B.C. government needs to stop selling raw logs overseas and start building B.C. pulp and paper mills and sawmills here in B.C., then sell finished products overseas so B.C. workers can have living wage jobs first.
Jerome Desilets,
Powell River