the broken typewriter

Merry Christmas to all the wonderful people who support local journalism by subcribing and following The Broken Typewriter – without you and your support I’d be talking to myself!

This Christmas I bring you a Year in Review of sorts . . . the Top 12 Articles of 2024, as determined by the number of views they received, from you, my followers and subscribers. So for this last week of 2024, The Broken Typewriter will bring you the top stories of 2024, everyday except Christmas Day.

#12 – Forest Industry Stumbles: Canfor closure tip of the iceberg

“I never imagined a day that our forest industry would be in such a predicament, especially Fort St. John Canfor closing their doors,” said Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen.

Canfor, which has been part of the fabric of the North Peace for decades announced in September that it would be closing the Fort St. John mill, effective December 20, 2024. The company cited “increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber to support our manufacturing facilities” and the resulting financial losses in the BC operations as reasons for the closure.

These challenges were made worse by increases in punishing US tariffs, something Prince George-Peace River-Northern Rockies MP Bob Zimmer has been taking the federal government to task over in recent months.

Knowing the reasons for the closure, doesn’t change the fact that nearly a thousand families in the North Peace are suffering. Families who not only work for Canfor, but the logging companies – the drivers, equipment operators, mechanics and other support workers – and are now facing an uncertain future.

“We’re surrounded by excellent quality tight fiber, hard working employees, contractors, and support sectors.  I’m told that the wood we produce is in demand and customer requested,” said Hansen.

Many of the employees and contractors Hansen refers to have grown up in the forest industry. They’re second or third generation loggers, more in some cases, and they have established family-run businesses. For those companies who were built by husband-and-wife teams, there isn’t a cushion of another income, separate from the forest industry, to keep them afloat. A lot of these companies employ their adult children in various roles.

MP Zimmer spoke to a group of logging contractors recently and produced a video of the discussion. One of the logging truck drivers he spoke to, Wayne Harder of W & M Enterprises, also appeared as a witness at the federal Standing Committee on International Trade on November 4.

Harder’s business, that he and his wife Marie built from the ground up 32 years ago, used to employ 120 people, from heavy duty mechanics to logging truck drivers to heavy duty equipment operators.

“That’s all we’ve done since we’ve been married,” Marie told Zimmer in his video. “We’ve seen this major downturn. In the last six to eight years, (business) dropped 25 percent, now it’s another 90 percent beyond that, and what’s left means we’re not hiring people.”

People who have put their lives into the forest industry are prematurely reaching the end of a life-long career, with nowhere to go. After thirty-plus years in one industry, doing one job, it’s not easy to suddenly change careers.

Follow this link to continue reading #12

#11 – Climate resiliency facilitator says North will

Climate projections can help us understand the potential conditions that we need to prepare for, according to Cariad Garratt, principal at Pinna Sustainability Inc. Garratt used climate projections prepared for northeastern British Columbia by the Pacific Climate Impact Consortium as the basis for the recently held public engagement sessions about the Peace River Regional District’s proposed Regional Climate Resiliency Plan. The results of the summer public engagement were presented to the PRRD Board of Directors on Sept 12.

The RCRP project involves gaining a better understanding of the potential impacts of climate change in the Peace Region and identifying the role of the PRRD in improving resilience to the identified impacts, paying particular attention to rural areas, Garratt explained.

The goal of developing a Regional Climate Resiliency Plan, said Garratt is to protect the health and well-being of Peace Region residents.

The climate projections Garratt used show that the Peace Region will experience increasingly warmer summers.

“In the past the region experienced an average of about 12 days of over 25°C annually,” said Garratt. “By the 2080’s we can expect that to be closer to 50 days. About four times more days that we would be over 25°C.

“By the 2080’s, summer temperatures in Fort St. John are expected to be like Kelowna’s, in the summers of the 1980’s.”

These temperatures could trigger heat-stress across the region, a higher demand for water, and during dry spells could create challenges for water supply, water quality and food production.

Winters are also expected to be warmer and drier, with 28 percent less frost day, and 37 percent longer growing seasons, Garratt said.

While summers and winters, according to the climate projections are expected to warmer and drier, more precipitation in the spring and fall could lead to more frequent flooding. The intensity of wind, rain and hailstorms are also expected to increase leading to a greater number of extreme events.

In addition to the potential impacts on climate of the Peace Region, and what the PRRD can do to mitigate them, the project also looks at the Greenhouse Gas Emissions that are contributing to climate change in the region.

Follow this link to continue reading #11

Please be sure to come back tomorrow, for the stories that took ninth and tenth place. Merry Christmas!