VANCOUVER — Some rural B.C. mayors are upset by the provincial government’s decision to divert money from the rural dividend fund to help communities hit by the forestry industry downturn, and say it will hurt their efforts at economic diversification.
“This has been a devastating blow for our community,” Lumby Mayor Kevin Acton said during a news conference at the Union of B.C. Municipalities convention in Vancouver. “We’ve been working on diversification and now we’re feeling like we’re going to be really shot in the foot.”
Last week, the province announced $69 million in measures to help communities where mills have closed and production curtailed. However, it wasn’t initially clear that $25 million would come from the B.C. Rural Dividend fund, which helps communities with a population of 25,000 or fewer with economic diversification.
Karl Sterzer, mayor of the Village of Canal Flats, said the fund was “everything” when a Canfor sawmill, the community’s biggest employer, shut down in 2015. It helped pay for development of a new official community plan and more.
“This funding is key and critical, and I can’t imagine the communities that are going through what we went through in 2015 and 2016 not having the ability to draw from that kind of resource,” Sterzer said.
Since 2016, the program has provided $73 million in grants. The latest intake, which closed on Aug. 15, drew 338 applications.
Forest Minister Doug Donaldson said at a separate news conference that applications will be held until the next time the grants are issued, which could be in 2020.
“I know, coming from a small community, how much time and effort it takes to put those applications in,” Donaldson said. “At the same time, we’ve made a decision as government to ensure that workers in rural communities in the Interior are supported.”
B.C. Liberal Leader Andrew Wilkinson suggested the money to support the forestry sector should come from the provincial government’s contingency fund.
“Instead, we have governments cutting corners, robbing Peter to pay Paul, stealing from one fund to pay for another fund. This is not acceptable,” Wilkinson said.
Premier John Horgan said there was an urgent need for the province to take action, and the money set aside for rural diversification was easily accessible.
“The 25 million in the rural development fund is going to rural communities to keep people home, not to have them just dissipate throughout the province,” Horgan said. “Resilient communities need people, and we’re focusing on people.”
Quesnel Mayor Bob Simpson agreed that it’s disappointing to lose the rural dividend funding, however his community badly needs the money that will be redirected to the forest industry. The Quesnel timber supply area was hard hit by the pine beetle infestation and two years of forest fires, and the permanent closure of Tolko’s Quest Wood mill and permanent shift curtailment at West Fraser Timber Co. has cost the community about 200 jobs.
“We are in the thick of things,” Simpson said, noting that the city will qualify for $100,000 in funding because of the mill closure, plus more in services for workers.
However, Quesnel’s applications for rural dividend grants will be put on hold. The city has benefited in the past and was looking to plan for and construct more mountain bike trails, and do some marketing as part of its economic diversification plan.
“The repurposing of dollars for this moment … is justified. We’re not happy about it as a community … but at the same time, there’s only one taxpayer, there’s only one way to source funding from the province for these kinds of things,” Simpson said.
