The first “Future of Forestry in our Region” forum was held at the Canfor Theatre at UNBC.
Several speakers gave their thoughts about what’s happening in the forestry industry in the North.
“We had an unbelievably awesome turnout,” said Jenn Matthews, a local forestry advocate.
Matthews noted one person in attendance counted around 200 people in the theatre, and there were 140 people viewing the meeting on Zoom.
“I think that shows you that people really care about this in our community,” Matthews said.
“Chuck LeBlanc [Public and Private Workers of Canada Local 9 President] spoke and it was a really emotional time for him, and all the union members that came there, that’s why they came there, because their heart is in this.”
Chuck LeBlanc making an emotional statement for our event. pic.twitter.com/0pMCUbkx4s
— James Steidle (@JamesSteidle) March 1, 2023
“From our perspective as a union and local, it’s been in the news a lot about mill closures and we’re just starting to get to the point we’re used to it,” LeBlanc.
“We’re hoping that it isn’t something that everybody else is going to get used to, it hopefully becomes something that ‘hey, this is wrong, we need to fix this’.”
LeBlanc was just one of the speakers during the forum.
“Having somebody like Mike Morris and Ben Parfitt who people might think of as opposite sides of the political spectrum, but when they speak about forests, they’re essentially saying the same thing,” Matthews said.
“Ecologically, we’ve messed up our forest economy here, and we can’t keep doing things the same way anymore.”
Mike Morris … about to say the equivalent clearcut area of the Chilako drainage was 90%!!! pic.twitter.com/otChfQX6ns
— James Steidle (@JamesSteidle) March 1, 2023
 LeBlanc added they are hoping to do more of these forums in more communities.
“We’ve discussed about going up to Mackenzie, they’ve had a lot of issues over the last number of years with the amount of plant closures, and more recently with Houston and Chetwynd,” LeBlanc said.
LeBlanc said they’re looking at April to host the next forum, but nothing is currently set in stone.
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