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Tuesday, March 5, 2019 | Your community newspaper since 1916

CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN

Walking on sunshine Walkers at CN Centre enjoy the sunshine while avoiding the cold weather on Monday.

Wilkinson levels criticism against February NDP over struggling sawmills cold was Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca

B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson is accusing the NDP government of inaction in the face of an ongoing decline in the forest sector. In a telephone interview Monday, Wilkinson emphasized economic issues when asked for the top three matters the party is pursuing on behalf of voters in north-central B.C. He said government revenues from the resource sector – stumpage fees from timber harvesting and royalties from oil and gas and mining – are on course to drop 30 per cent, “and they don’t plan to do anything about it.” Concurrent with that, Wilkinson made note of the slowdown in the forest industry as sawmills invoke production curtailments in the face of softening lumber prices, timber supply constraints and the tariffs the United States has imposed on Canadian softwood lumber. While the provincial government can do little to stem a slowing of the U.S. housing market and a consequent drop in the price of lumber, Wilkinson said there are still levers it can control, notably the mid-term timber supply. “We’ve got to find out the right way to sort out the medium-term timber supply,” Wilkinson said. “The industry needs some reliability, and all of the people working in the industry and all of the families across northern B.C. are entitled to know the prospects for the next three to five years in the forest industry. The NDP can do that and they haven’t done it.” Canfor, Conifex and West Fraser have

Today’s Weather Hi -10° Low -19°

LOCAL HOROSCOPE OPINION NEWS SPORTS

record setting Citizen staff

CITIZEN FILE PHOTO

B.C. Liberal leader Andrew Wilkinson, seen here during a visit to Prince George in January 2018, says the NDP could do more to help the forest industry. all cited log supply and log costs as reasons for curtailments. “If the forest industry is facing a triple-whammy of the American duties, uncertainty of timber supply and low prices, this is bad news for northern B.C. and we’re saying to the NDP, it’s time for them to come to the table, it’s time for the NDP government to look out for the interests of British Columbians,” Wilkinson said. Experts have said the drop in available

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timber has been a function of most of the beetle-killed pine having been harvested and the massive wildfires over the last two summers and there is not much the provincial government can do. Wilkinson also took Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development Doug Donaldson to task for showing up in January at a blockade opponents of the Coastal GasLink pipeline put up south of Houston. — see ‘THERE IS, page 3

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Philpott pulls the plug NEWS 5

See page 2 for more details and short-term forecasts

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How cold was it? So cold that February was a record setter, according to Environment Canada. The average temperature for the month was -18 C, breaking the old record of -14.5 C set in 1949. The normal average is -5 C. Environment Canada meteorologist Bobby Sekhon put the blame on an arctic air mass settling over the region starting in the first week – and staying. “That happens every winter from time to time, however this time what was peculiar about it was it stuck around for so long,” he said. “There were certain times in February when it did retreat a little bit but then it filled back in again and it remained quite cold and below average for the whole month.” Feb. 4 was the coldest day when the low was -38.2 C and the high just -21.3 C. However, the low was only the second coldest for that day. The record of -40.6 C was set in 1937. Just one daily record fell, when the low for Feb. 25 dropped to -32.4, edging out the old mark of -32.2 set in 1922. “Just one minimum daily temperature record broken, the story was the prolonged cold,” Sekhon said. Looking ahead, Sekhon said March appears on track to cycle into more normal temperatures starting this weekend when the forecast is for a high of 4 C on Sunday. Normal highs for month are in the 3 C range. “There is some relief on the horizon,” he said.

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