PRINCE GEORGE – More than $27 million in project grants that will help create jobs throughout British Columbia will also help increase the use of wood fibre that otherwise would have been burned as slash.
This was done by the Forest Enhancement Society of B.C. (FESBC), which distributes the grants, in partnership with the B.C. government and the Government of Canada.
“Nothing frustrates people more than seeing piles of slash go to waste rather than be used to help create jobs,” said Ravi Kahlon, Parliamentary Secretary for the Ministry of Forests, Lands, Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development.
Kahlon made the announcement at the Pacific BioEnergy plant in Prince George and was joined by industry and FESBC representatives and Mackenzie Mayor, Joan Atkinson.
These projects will employ forestry contractors, some of whom might otherwise be unemployed. In addition, it will help to employ mill workers who produce electricity, wood pellets and pulp at mills that produce these products specifically. As result, more wood waste will be turned into electricity, heat energy and pulp products to help achieve B.C.͛s and Canada͛s climate change targets.