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Funding for forestry workers provides relief for Fort St. James Mayor

An announcement from the provincial government this morning was welcome news for Fort St. James Mayor Bev Playfair.

Following the closure of Conifex in the district earlier this year, affecting 226 employees, Playfair declared a state of local financial crisis to alert the province of the serious implications it had on the community.

“One of our main thoughts on this declaration was to draw attention to our community with the provincial and federal governments, it was basically an ask to find some funding to help out with that retirement bridging, training, job opportunity programs, that is exactly what we were trying to do with that declaration,” Playfair told MyPGNow.

Today, it would seem that ask has been answered.

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Minister Doug Donaldson visited Prince George this morning to say that the government would be providing $69 million to communities and workers impacted by mill closures across the province in the form of investments in programs establishing early-retirement bridging, skills training, and community grants.

“That’s the best news that Fort St. James could have received. We’ve been working tirelessly since June 25th to find some funding to help these unemployed workers and our contractors. I’m absolutely thrilled and would like to thank the provincial government for listening to us.”

The dust has yet to settle on the announcement, which was only made a few hours ago, but Playfair said she’ll be meeting with the government later this week to hammer out some specifics on how these funds will be allocated.

“I’m just absolutely thrilled, it just reduces the stress and sleepless nights knowing that help is on the way. I’m a very happy mayor today.”

Watch below: MyPGNow reports following the announcement of Fort St. James in financial crisis in July.

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