Mill Closure Shows Coleman Not Doing Enough to Protect Jobs: NDP
VICTORIA – The closure of the Western Forest Products mill in Ladysmith proves once and for all that Forest Minister Rich Coleman's decisions to allow the company to remove land from tree farm licenses on Vancouver Island was a breach of the public trust, New Democrat forest Critic Bob Simpso n says.
“Minister Coleman’s assertion that taking land out of the working forest would
Bob Simpson somehow save millworkers’ jobs didn’t hold water when he made it, and this latest closure proves he was wrong,” said Simpson, the NDP MLA for Cariboo North.
“The Minister's only justification for releasing 28,000 hectares of land from under public control without consultation or compensation to the Crown was that it was a way to save forestry jobs on the coast. Western's Ladysmith mill closure announcement and other curtailments prove that the Minister's assertion was absolutely false.”
Cowichan – Ladysmith MLA Doug Routley says the Campbell government has abandoned forestry on Vancouver Island, and their supposed coast recovery plan has been an abject failure.
“It took more than two years for the minister to deliver his 
Doug Routleyeight-page coast action plan,” said Routley, “and since that time, hundreds more jobs have been lost from the forest industry on Vancouver Island.
“Mills continue to close on the coast because the minister’s coastal plan did nothing to prevent raw logs from being shipped out of the province,” said Routley.
“Forestry built most of the communities on this island, and by mismanaging forest policy the Campbell government has increased the devastating impacts on both the industry and the communities it has served.”
