By Stephanie Froese

Mill agreement not enough for forestry: Furber

Mar 8, 2011 | 5:35 AM

Darcy Furber, the NDP MLA for Prince Albert Northcote, has mixed feelings about an announcement that the Prince Albert pulp mill is on course to be sold.

The opposition critic for forestry said the agreement has good potential, but he also said he doesn’t think the government really knows what it's doing when it comes to the forestry industry in Saskatchewan.

The agreement to sell the Prince Albert pulp mill is contingent on a few conditions between the buyer and the government. Those conditions include a power agreement with SaskPower, a wood allocation agreement, and environmental liability. Despite a formal media conference on Monday,

Furber said he has some concerns that the government won’t pull through.

“Those are some of the details that we’re certainly concerned about, but overall it’s certainly a good deal. It gets 200 Prince Albert residents back to work.”

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Unfortunately, Fuber said, that is only a quarter of what would have been working under the agreement that was signed in 2007.

“I would like to see more than the 200 jobs that are going to be part of the deal. I think there’s much more potential than that in the forestry industry and that facility.”

He said his concerns stem mostly from a larger vision for the forestry industry that he feels the government doesn’t necessarily share. He said that was shown when the Big River and the Wapawekka mills shut down, as well as when the Prince Albert mill stopped in 2006.

“They’ve done nothing but run it down and talk about how it lacks any potential at all, and the minister himself has stated clearly that if the pulp mill had been up and running in 2007 that it would have been closed down many times over,” Furber said. He added, at that time the spot price for pulp was almost double what it was when the mill shut down.

Furber said he thinks this recent announcement is a nice step but there are many steps to go before the forestry industry is running the way it should be.

sfroese@panow.com
 

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