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THURSDAY, June 13, 2024 • www.X.com/merrittherald • www.merrittherald.com
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Aspen Planers temporarily closed since April Kenneth Wong reporter@merrittherald.com
Aspen Planers forced to temporarily cease operations due to the forestry crisis. Due to what AP Group executive vice president Bruce Rose calls “market realities,” has ceased operations since April 25. Prior to the closure, Aspen ran on a “only a single shift daily basis for much of 2023 and 2024,” says Rose. “(To) simply put, the whole forest industry in B.C., it’s not an exaggeration, it’s collapsing and it’s just in a terrible state,” said Rose. “You can see the negative consequences are all over the place in the province, just over the last couple years, forestry jobs have been lost by the thousands.” “The frustrating part for us and for everybody else (in the forest industry), there doesn’t seem to be any sense of urgency or any support from the B.C. government to address any of these challenges, there’s been no concrete steps taken,” said Rose. “(Forestry) just does not appear to be an industry that the provincial government is interested in supporting or having a strong forest industry.” “You can see it in the endless facilities closing people, postponing investments that they were going to do earlier,” said Rose citing a cancelled $200 million
Love to Dance Academy performed their year-end recital. Page 17. Photo/Kenneth Wong
LAWSUIT DISMISSED B.C. Supreme Court judge dismisses defamation lawsuit filed by Upper Nicola chief and council. /PAGE 8
MSS SENIORS’ ART AT GALLERY Merritt Secondary School students showcase their art at the Nicola Valley Arts Centre.
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investment from Canfor into a mill in Houston, B.C. “They decided to shelve the whole idea because they have the same perspective as we do, there’s no certainty and you just can’t risk investing,” said Rose. “The best way of putting it is: none of this is good for anybody and it needs to get fixed.” Rose compares the situation to a scene from the 1975 film Monty Python and the Holy Grail in which a man is being dragged off to be disposed of with other plague victims, to which the man cries “I’m not dead yet.” According to Rose, the core problem “is that British Columbia is now the highest cost forest products manufacturing in North America.” “It’s very difficult in forestry to get things done in B.C.,” says Rose. “You’ve got time delay costs, the log affordability costs here, and the lack of government timber that’s put up for auction is making it very difficult.” Rose looks at Alberta where stumpage, the cost companies or individuals pay provincial governments when harvesting trees off crown land, is much cheaper. “They are literally one tenth of what the log prices are here in British Columbia,” said Rose.
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