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PG ALTAGAS GIVES GREEN LIGHT PG 08 IN PEACE REGION FOR MAKING PROPANE HISTORY 09

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Table of COntents Avery Bell Has Rung Up The Competition Once Again............................. pg 4 Stan Walchuk backcountry adventurer....................................................... pg 6 Second Coal Mine Reopens In Peace Region.............................................. pg 8 AltaGas Gives Green Light For Making Propane History.......................... pg 9 Emissions decisions – Graymont pondering how to power its plant... pg 10 Construction For Construction At CNC....................................................... pg 11 The Cutting Edge Of Cutting Trees............................................................. pg 12 Digging In On Blackwater Gold................................................................... pg 14

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Avery Bell has rung up the competition once again Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff

For the second year in a row the celebrated young carpenter is the high school champion in the Cabinetmaking category of the Skills Canada Central Interior Regional Skills Competition.

“The Grade 12 student from Correlieu Secondary in Quesnel was the provincial winner last year, and went on to place third at the Skills Canada National Competition in New Brunswick,” said Catherine Hansen McCarthy, communications officer at the College of New Caledonia where the event was held.

Second place in high school Cabinetmaking went to Garnet Grenon and third to Scott Sargent.

The other categories and their winners are as follows: Welding (Post-Secondary) - 1. Samuel Baker 2. Tristan Dean 3. Ryan Phillips Culinary Arts (Post-Secondary) - 1.

Kara Wickum 2. Aaron Ivanoff Culinary Arts (Secondary) - 1. Laura Parent 2. Katelynn Baerg 3. Matyas Legate-Sary Carpentry (Post-Secondary) - 1.

Delbert George 2. Runar Odisson 3.

Tanna Geisbrecht Heavy Duty Mechanics (PostSecondary) - 1. Devon Wood 2. (tie) Kolten Appler and Brayden Maves Machinist (Post-Secondary) - 1. Devin Rentz 2. Mike McClaskey Automotive Service (Secondary) - 1.

Reid Jackson 2. Nolan Peake There were 50 students in total vying for the prizes in the suite of events at CNC. They were divided into high school and secondary divisions. Plus another

96 competitors - all of them in Grade 7 - went head to head in teams of 2-4 students to see which of their classroommade wooden windmills would generate the most electricity when blown by a giant fan.

Another 200 elementary students were shown around the trades and technology facilities at CNC to give them an inside view of what their classrooms would look like if they pursued the industrial professions.

“This doesn’t count towards their school grades, it’s just a bonus activity and gives them some excitement over the possibilities,” said Frank Rossi, Dean of Trades at CNC. Some of the more involved competitions - Cabinetmaking and Carpentry - took the competitors more than three hours to work through. Others like the Automotive disciplines were about an hour’s worth of puzzling and problemsolving.

“We planted a glitch, and they have to use diagnostic tools to find it,” said Rossi as the students fiddled with brakes and engines and other vehicle parts trying to locate the source of the imbedded problem.

“They have a list of instructions, they have a set of tools they can use, they have a time limit, and a systematic approach to how they do it,” Rossi explained. All tasks were done under the watchful gaze of instructors and professionals from the industry who came to CNC as guest judges.

One of those volunteer professionals was mechanic Lee McElhinney of the Northland Auto Group.

“It’s nice to see the young guys getting into the profession,” he said. “We really need more students getting involved in the automotive professions, and we want to help in any way we can.

There seems to be a bit of a shortage right now.”

Getting them interested in the concepts behind trades and technology professions is easier done by using competitive fun, according to the organizers of the event. Building a little windmill out of wood and seeing how it handles a fan’s force is mostly a game in the minds of the Grade 7 competitors, but they are also applying a lot of trades science and workmanship.

“It was scary when we first (got our kit),” said Amarleen Bhatti, one of the members of a Pedan Hill Elementary School team. “I was so excited to try it.

We tried a smaller design first, it didn’t work, so we shaped the blades and added longer arms. The blades and the length were the important parts.”

Some of the little turbines whizzed in the laboratory wind, some made a few revolutions, and some stared back blankly, unmoving. The kids were full of high-fives and back pats for each other, no matter what the result.

This was the second year that the B.C. division of Skills Canada worked with CNC to hold these championships. Other regional competitions are scheduled for later this winter in Kamloops, Dawson Creek and Terrace. The winners from each will be invited to compete again on Apr. 5 in Abbotsford for the provincial round.

“In Abbotsford it is quite a produc-

Avery Bell, using a table saw, is once again the winner for Cabinetmaking in the CNC skills compition Wednesday. The Grade 12 student from Correlieu Secondary in Quesnel was the provincial winner last year, and went on to place third at the Skills Canada National Competition in New Brunswick.

He and the other winners are now invited to participate in the Provincial Skills Competition April 5th in Abbotsford BC. Citizen photo by Brent Braaten tion,” said Rossi. “Here the competitions are quiet, there’s a lot of concentration, but down there you’re competing with thousands of kids. It is quite a lot of commotion. It really brings out the best.”

Since 1994, Skills Canada-BC has operated as a provincial not-for-profit/charitable organization working with industry, educators, government and labour to promote rewarding and in-demand skilled trade and technology careers for B.C.’s youth. The competition is one way they instill knowledge and excitement for these career paths, and draw attention to the level of skills already in the hands of the youth of the province.

The Peace region will hold its regional Skills Canada-BC competition on Feb. 17 at Northern Lights College. The Cariboo

area’s event will be held in Kamloops on March 3 at Thompson Rivers Universtiy, while on the same day the Northwest competition will be held at Northwest Community College in Terrace.

“With almost one million job openings projected in B.C. by 2025, the Skills Canada competitions help to showcase our students’ skills and talent and also raise awareness of the various careers available in our province” said Prince George-Valemount MLA Shirley Bond, who is the province’s Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour.

“Congratulations to all the participants in the Central Interior Regional Skills Competition, and I wish all our students continued success in the future.”

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Jagyir Minhas competes in the foundation carpentry skills challenge at CNC in January. citizen photo by Brent Braaten

Janna Giesbrecht competes in the foundation carpentry skills challenge at CNC in January. citizen photo by Brent Braaten

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Stan Walchuk backcountry adventurer Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff

Stan Walchuk has led an uncommon life and it led him to write an uncommon biography.

A lot of his personal narrative involves the wilds of mountain and forest exploration, but he is equally comfortable in the urban jungle. He is most comfortable, no matter what the terrain, with his butt in the saddle and he’s pretty handy with a pen in his hand. He’s written extensively over the years for the Canadian Horse Journal, Saddle-Up Magazine and many other publications.

He was also the man behind the breathtaking horse trek immortalized in book and documentary form entitled Cordillera. It detailed the epic trip he took across North America, crossing 11 mountain ranges, more than 20 major rivers, and the breadth of the continental mountains.

While that was one of many life-altering, character-building moments between one human and the wildest parts of the planet, there is more than one book in the mental library. The man behind and well ahead - of Cordillera is now back between two expository covers in the new book Common Man, Uncommon Life. It’s a mountain of a volume

itself, at almost 700 pages of raw honesty and wild accounts through the eyes of the man who was there through it all and barely lived to tell all these tales.

“I admit, it was hard to talk about some things, like how hard my dad was on me, but I felt it was necessary to establish everything that was to come later in my life, who I was as a person, and why that made me the kind of guy who would go off alone for hundreds of miles into the bush,” Walchuk said.

“I was fiercely independent, too, for no reason other than just wanting to have my own way. I ran away from home at age 11. I went on my first solo wilderness trip before I was 13 years old.”

The writing of a book is about as different an activity as can be imagined, from backcountry trekking through the nation’s most rugged forests, valleys and mountains. Its one commonality is being alone for long periods of time. It took Walchuk three years of dedication at the writing process.

“I’ve had ups and downs in life. Maybe more than some,” he said, explaining how the writing process was an adventure of its own. “I said in the book that you had to face the ghosts and face yourself.

I think I did that a lot anyway, just because I have

spent a lot of time alone in the wilderness and you go through stages of thinking when you do that.

Yes, the book was sometimes a healing process but sometimes not - there were things brought up that I haven’t properly reconciled, or maybe not gotten to a point of closure or peace, and that’s still there sitting on your mind. If you write a biography that is honest, it talks about things that didn’t go well, things you’re not proud of, and those things are sitting there staring at you. So it was both a catharsis and a little unsettling at the same time.”

He admitted to feeling a little numb to the completion of the book. When an activity is a regular part of your day to day living for years on end, its abrupt ending can set the writer adrift. His mental muscles went into a state of dull denial that Common Man, Uncommon Life was now out of his hands.

“It becomes a strange feeling when you have to realize your life is now moving in a new direction and a regular routine is not there anymore. But it is also a relief to take a break. But if you’re like me, you’re off to the next project and that takes over in its place.”

The book is now a project for readers. The pages

Stan Walchuk Jr explores the remote Cassiar Mountians of Nothern BC

disclose real life encounters with bears, near-death experiences in the wild where inches and seconds were the only slivers that separated life from the great beyond.

The book also talks a lot about horses, a lot about the organic environmental systems that urban humans might feel disconnected from, but you get to know intimately if you embrace it, alone and at peace with your insignificance. That’s where a common man found uncommon gifts of understanding and insight, and now some of those have been shared with the world.

When he’s not out on new adventures, Walchuk lives in the Robson Valley on the western side of the palatial Canadian Rockies. If Common Man, Uncommon Life isn’t on the shelf of your favourite local bookstore it can be ordered by email (bchorse@telus.net) or phone (250-569-7575).

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Back country riders learn their trade from Walchuk

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Second coal mine reopens in Peace Region Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff Northeastern B.C. had hardly gotten over the good news of one reopening coal mine when a second one also shed its mothballs.

Conuma Coal Resources Ltd. was a recent buyer of a trio of mining holdings north of Prince George and the first dormant site the new owners fired back up was the Brule Mine.

Only three months later, they are at it again, this time restoring production at Wolverine Mine. Both are close to the town of Tumbler Ridge.

“Restarting the Wolverine Mine is tremendous news for families living in and around Tumbler Ridge,” said Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett.

“This mine will create approximately 220 new goodpaying jobs in the region on top of the 170 jobs created when Conuma Coal reopened Brule Mine in September. The restart of these two mines is a significant boost to the economy in the Peace Region.”

The dormant mines were purchased earlier this year from Walter Canada, along with the Willow Creek Mine also in the vicinity.

“This is fantastic news for everyone in the Tumbler Ridge area and I am looking forward to seeing the spinoff benefits of the Wolverine Mine restart in our region,” said Mike Bernier, MLA for Peace River South and formerly the mayor of Dawson Creek not far from these industrial projects. “The 220 new jobs created will not only help Tumbler Ridge, but will also help revitalize the mining industry in the Peace region.”

Conuma Coal already underway with the hiring process to fill the 220 jobs at the Wolverine Mine site and is taking steps to transition the mine from ‘care and maintenance’ mode back to production mode. Conuma Coal plans to have the mine fully staffed and operating at full production levels by April 1.

The company estimates it will produce 1.5 million tonnes of metallurgical coal annually from the Wolverine Mine.

“This project also provides new opportunities for over 250 B.C. businesses,” said Prince George MLA Shirley Bond, Minister of Jobs, Tourism and Skills Training and Minister Responsible for Labour, explaining the spinoff effect a mine has on the broader economy. Bond’s figures were that when all three mines are again in production it would put $60 million of wages into mostly local families’ pockets, plus another $60 million of company

money spent on goods and services to operate these mines, plus another $150 million spent into the transportation sector just within the confines of B.C. to get the coal from the mines to the ports.

“A company like Conuma Coal coming into our region is a tremendous boost for all businesses in our community,” said Tumbler Ridge Chamber of Commerce manager Jerrilyn Schembri. “Conuma Coal has a strong focus on supporting the people and businesses in Tumbler Ridge and surrounding communities.”

Prior to authorizing the restart of the Wolverine Mine, the provincial government consulted with potentially affected First Nations on the transfer of permits between Walter Energy and Conuma Coal.

The Province has regional coal agreements in place, in that region, with the West Moberly, Saulteau and Halfway River First Nations.

“The subsequent opening of the second operation in the last three months has been possible because of the progressive collaboration between the ministry, the previous owners, the courts, First Nations, local communities and a great group of employees - a true win-win,” said Mark A. Bartkoski, president of Conuma Coal Resources Ltd. “Our goal of being a blessing to all of our partners is a journey that is coming to reality.”

“The opening of the Wolverine Mine by Conuma Coal is the best Christmas present Tumbler Ridge could have asked for,” said the town’s mayor Don McPherson. “We have had a tough three years, and this will put people back to work and improve our economic outlook. Although we have diversified our economy, this town was built to service coal mining and we are glad to see it back. Thank you to the ministry and Minister Bennett for all your help in getting this done so quickly.”

Now to complete the trifecta. Government staff are also reviewing Conuma Coal’s proposal to possibly restart production at the Willow Creek Mine by as early as July 2017. Timing for the restart of the Willow Creek Mine is dependent upon Conuma Coal’s ability to complete the necessary work to satisfy all its permit requirements, as well as a set of internal decisions. So far, their decisions have been decisive and constructive after only a few months in the region’s industrial family.

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AltaGas gives green light for making propane history Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff

Ridley Island has for decades been synonymous with coal. The Prince Rupert port facility will now add a second natural resource to its export abilities.

The final investment decision was made this past week by AltaGas to build Canada’s first west coast propane shipping terminal at the Ridley site, an offshoot of the Port of Prince Rupert.

“AltaGas has executed long-term agreements securing land tenure along with rail and marine infrastructure on Ridley Island, and will proceed with the construction, ownership and operation of the Ridley Export Terminal,” said a company statement.

It will be built on a large parcel of unused brownfield, so the additional advantage represented by this project is making that land useful again.

However, just because it was previously used for industry doesn’t negate the need for obtaining proper social license, according to the company.

“We are consulting and working with the First Nations whose traditional territory the Ridley Export Terminal is located within,” said David Harris, President and CEO of AltaGas. “Collaborating closely with First Nations and communities to create sustainable social value is of paramount importance to us and we look forward to a long and mutually beneficial relationship with the First Nations in the region.”

“The project is a reflection of how we do business in B.C. - balancing environmental protection with economic development, creating opportunities and real partnerships with First Nations, and putting British Columbians first,” said Premier Christy Clark.

“This export facility is another promising development for our province, connecting producers in northeast B.C. to markets in Asia.”

Federal MP Nathan Cullen (Skeena-Bulkley Valley) also celebrated the decision by AltaGas to build this facility at Ridley Island.

“It’s really encouraging to see a sound development project given a positive investment decision in the northwest,” said Cullen. “This is particularly good news for Prince Rupert and Port Edward. This project will provide many employment opportunities for people across the north and B.C. I congratulate AltaGas for committing to project development in the northwest. It is my hope that this announcement will help to stimulate further opportunities for communities in the region.”

The proposed propane export terminal will pro-

vide 200-250 jobs during construction and 40-50 permanent jobs upon completion. Construction is anticipated to begin in early 2017 and the completed facility is expected to be operational by 2019.

The terminal will be capable of exporting 1.2 million tonnes of propane a year, which is the equivalent of about 30 ships per year in and out of British Columbia harbour.

Building the facility in northern B.C. also represents a global savings in greenhouse gas emissions.

Propane is shipped by rail, so the alternative would be - as all propane exporters currently do - sending the propane by train to Chicago, then south to the Gulf of Mexico where it is loaded onto ships that travel the Atlantic seaboard to the very bottom of the continent through the Panama Canal, then back up and across the Pacific Ocean to Asia. Asia has the best markets for propane.

Having a facility in Prince Rupert will significantly reduce the A-to-B travel time, and cut down on all the greenhouse gasses required for that long transportation route.

The construction investment to build the shipping facility, according to the company’s figures, would be somewhere between $450-500 million.

“The locational advantage is very short shipping distances to markets in Asia, notably a 10-day shipping time compared to 25 days from the U.S. Gulf Coast,” said Harris. “Propane exports off of Canada’s west coast pulls together our vision of offering Canadian producers a complete energy value chain.

Together with our northeast B.C. infrastructure, once the Ridley Export Terminal is built and operating, we will give producers new access to premium Asian markets for their propane.”

AltaGas expects to supply half of the propane that will be shipped out of their new port facility, with the other half coming from other supply companies. Astomos Energy Corporation of Japan has already signed a memorandum of understanding with AltaGas to be a major customer of whatever they ship from the Prince Rupert terminal.

“Astomos is one of the largest LPG players in the world providing great access to Asian markets for Western Canadian producers,” said Harris. “We look forward to maximizing our relationship with them… A definitive agreement has been finalized with Astomos containing the key commercial terms for the sale and purchase of these volumes of propane. Commercial discussions with Astomos and several other third party offtakers for further capacity commitments are proceeding.”

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Emissions decisions – Graymont pondering how to power its plant Mark NEILSEN Citizen Staff A Richmond-based lime producer has won the provincial government’s environmental approval to establish a limestone quarry and lime plant at a site near Giscome.

Environment Minister Mary Polak and Energy and Mines Minister Bill Bennett issued an environmental assessment certificate to Richmond-based Graymont Western Canada Inc. for the project, the provincial government said at the end of December.

But there is still plenty of groundwork to be laid before construction can begin on the project.

The next step for the project’s owner, Richmondbased Graymont, is to go through a major mine permitting process. That will take the better part of a year, said Rob Beleutz, the company’s safety and environmental manager for Western Canada.

It means construction on the $80-$90 million project will begin in 2018 at the earliest.

Construction should take about 18 months and once completed, there will be a lime-producing plant near the southwest shore of Eaglet Lake centred on one kiln but with enough room to add two more.

The quarry will be located 4.3 kilometres to the southeast and feed the plant material via a covered conveyor.

A 600-metre spur line will connect the plant to the CN Rail mainline.

Graymont will be allowed to burn coal to heat the kilns but Beleutz said the preferred option is natural gas. But as it stands, there is no natural gas service in the area.

As for biomass – essentially wood – Beleutz said Graymont has not been able to find a viable source.

“We’re not looking at the pelletized material, we’re looking at a shredded material and unfortunately biomass fetches a very substantial price on the free market, from Europe etcetera,” Beleutz said.

If the plant burns coal, the province’s greenhouse gas emissions will increase by 1.2 per cent. The amount will drop by 14 per cent if natural gas is used and by 30 per cent if biomass is the source.

Once in operation, it will initially extract up to 600,000 tonnes of limestone per year, rising to 1.7 million tonnes per year at full build, and employ 10-15 people fulltime.

Beleutz emphasized the support of the Lheidli T’enneh in getting the project through the environmental process.

“We couldn’t have done it without them,” he said.

In 2014, the two signed a cooperation agreement through which the First Nation stands to see economic benefits from the proposed development.

The agreement also addresses potential concerns about archeological sites, traditional use in the area and environmental impacts.

The project was first made public in 2007 but put on hold later the same year because of uncertainty over the provincial government’s plans for tackling greenhouse gases.

It was revived in 2013 and entered the environment review process in late 2015. Halfway through the 180-day review, it once again was put on hold to allow Graymont to assess the effects of using a conveyor versus hauling material from the quarry to the plant by truck.

“We have a good project on our hands here, very valuable,” Beleutz said. “It’s very strategic for northern mines and northern customers.”

The plant is to be located at the southwest end of Eaglet Lake about 400 metres from the lake’s edge and a kilometre from Giscome village and will be fed via conveyor from a quarry 4.3 kilometres away.

Given concerns raised about the environmental impact during the public consultation period, Fraser-Fort George Regional District director Kevin Dunphy said the decision will likely draw a mixed reaction locally but on balance he believes it will be good for the community.

“I look at the long-term of 50 years of employment in our area, that part could be very positive,” Dunphy said. “Basically, that’s always been kind of an industrial zone, back in the time of the old Giscome sawmill so where they’re building has already been quite a bit disturbed.”

Emissions for the project are capped at 729,000 tonnes per year, enough room to burn coal to heat the kilns. But, according to a ministers’ reason for decision, the carbon tax is “expected to induce Graymont to select the lowest emissions and most economic fuel mix for the project in the future.”

At full build out, the quarry will extract up to 1.7 million tonnes per year with a life span of 50 years.

The proposed plant site was previously used by CN Rail to quarry ballast rock and has an existing rail connection and gravel road access.

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Construction for construction at CNC Mark NEILSEN Citizen Staff The financial underpinnings for a new $15-million heavy-mechanical trades-training facility at the College of New Caledonia were unveiled at the close of 2016.

The federal and provincial governments are each contributing $6.9 million and the college $1.2 million, according to a statement.

Construction is slated to get underway shortly, generating 53 direct and 41 indirect jobs, with project completion expected in spring 2018.

The new 2,326 square-metre (25,000 squarefoot) trades facility will replace leased facilities and accommodate 251 existing full-time equivalent spaces and up to 48 new student full-tiime equivalents in the heavy-duty equipment technician and

truck and transport mechanics program. This represents an 19-per-cent increase in capacity .

The building will meet LEED Gold building standard, with a net zero increase in energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions that will help the college meet its carbon-neutral objective.

“CNC works with local and regional industries and employers to determine what skills they need their employees to bring to the job,” CNC president Henry Reiser said in a statement announcing the project.

“Our new heavy-mechanical trades-training facility will enable students to develop practical skills that match employers’ needs, in up-to-date facilities. Experiential hands-on learning, such as this, reinforces textbook theory in a way that complements the entire educational process.”

Garrett Ainsworth in the machinist competition during the Trades Challenge at CNC in January.

Citizen photo by Brent Braaten

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The cutting edge of cutting trees FPA urges investment in forest sciences Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff

You can potentially build machinery out of trees, you know.

You can potentially make medicine and food out of trees, you know.

Scientists know this, and an increasing number of forestry companies know it, but does government know it?

A forest can do infinitely more things for humankind than shade, firewood and lumber. Recent advancements in wood-based technology has ignited intellectual fires, and it is high time, said one of the nation’s chief advocates for forest products, that it also ignited some new cash-flows from the same forest.

Derek Nighbor, CEO of the Forest Products Association of Canada, is urging all levels of government to gaze upon the nation’s forests through

more than a surveyor’s transit or a log scaler’s handscreen. Look through a microscope as well.

To do that means looking first at the budget.

Nighbor has been making the rounds of government offices in Victoria and Ottawa alike, visiting ministers and speaking to Select Standing Committees, to saw through some old mentalities.

“We’re getting a good hearing from the new federal government, that’s what I’m happy about,” Nighbor told Industry & Trades. “It’s been a little over a year now with the Trudeau government and one thing we definitely had with the previous government was a commitment to forestry R&D. There was a lot of government MPs from forestry communities, and we have less of that now. That just means there’s an education component to my work. No matter what party stripe you are, the MPs and MLAs we talk to in forestry-involved ridings, we are encouraging them to talk this up with their

respective parties so the discussion makes it into caucus meetings and into committees.”

There are two parts to ramping up the value of the garden-variety tree. One is investing in cutting edge science to expand the possibilities of what can be invented from wood, right down to the organic cells that form these enormous plants.

The second is, invented already or invented in the future, there has to be an effective sales pitch to the world, so those products ring up prosperity for Canadians.

Lumber and pulp/paper will continue to be major focuses of the forest industry for many years to come, followed by bi-products like bioenergy.

Nighbor isn’t trying to halt those aspects of the forest industry. He is simply pointing out that more options and thus more value to Canadians are contained within the cells of trees.

“We need the government to stay the course on

innovation,” he said. “We need a renewed commitment. That includes the science work, the research and development, but it also means the commercialization and scaling up of the marketing of these developments. It means looking at forest management technology so we do better at growing healthy forests. It means asking questions like how can we build more with wood in Canada? How do we modify the building codes to reflect new capabilities we have to engineer wood? We don’t need to tell the people of Prince George what that means and looks like. Prince George is one of the places taking a leadership role in the uses of wood.”

The Wood Innovation & Design Centre is a facility that stands as a literal testament to that philosophy.

It is one of the nation’s tallest all-wood structures and inside are students of UNBC and Emily Carr University in the lab figuring out how to advance that cause even further.

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INDUSTRY AND TRADES “FPInnovations, one of the world’s largest private-public partnerships, is jointly funded by government and industry,” said Nighbor, pinpointing another agency at the forefront of wood science. “It is developing cutting-edge technologies for Canada’s forest industry such as technology that uses the structural building blocks of trees for material that can be used for auto parts and bone replacement. It will see its federal funding expire in 2018. That funding of $100 million over four years is imperative if we are to see advancements that use wood to make life better, create green jobs in forestry, and help Canada compete in the international marketplace.

“We’re also recommending government support the commercialization of advanced wood products, bio-products and clean technology with $200 million for the program similar to the successful Investments into a Forestry Transformation (IFIT) program.

“Innovation is something the forest products sector has been doing innately for years, continually diversifying into higher-value niche areas such as bioenergy, biochemicals, nanotechnology and advanced construction materials.”

From an environmental point of view, a well managed forest industry is perpetually sustainable as well as beneficial for climate concerns.

From an economic point of view, the more prod-

ucts a jurisdiction can make with wood, the less beholden that forest industry is on single-track economies like Canadian softwood lumber into the United States.

With that important trade file now in dispute, an unpredictable new regime in Washington, and global markets showing signs of excitement in some sectors and worry in others, just being Canadian working in the forestry sector has certain advantages these days.

“This can’t be understated: we are a reliable and trusted trading partner,” said Nighbor. “Our goods and services are of the best quality anywhere in the world and produced using the highest environmental standards on the planet. On a recent trade mission to Japan and China, I saw this firsthand and was proud to see our sector’s valued reputation for quality, ethical forest practices and stellar customer service shared by dozens of Asian customers of Canadian forest products.

“Canada’s economy, environment and international reputation has grown on trees for 150 years.

The decisions and leadership displayed in 2017 will write the script for the next 150. We look forward to working collaboratively with our partners in all levels of government, with First Nations communities and with environmentalists across the country to support strong economic ‘green’ growth in the year ahead.”

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Derek Nighbor (centre) gets a tour of a Prince George pulp facility led by Canfor’s PG Pulp Mill/Intercontinental Pulp Mill general manager Peter Lovell (left) alongside provincial forestry parliamentary secretary John Martin (right).

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Digging in on Blackwater gold Frank PEEBLES Citizen Staff

New Gold Tim Bekhuys

No gold mine will be under construction on Mount Davidson in 2017. The news is still good, however, for the Blackwater mine project by New Gold Inc. The company’s overall collection of operations is moving forward on schedule, and that moves the Blackwater plan forward.

“As with most companies our size, we have a development pipeline,” said New Gold’s Tim Bekhuys. Theirs is an intermediate-level company and so their current mines are generating funds to explore for new locations and build new infrastructure almost like one domino falling to the next.

One of their most important operational dominos is the New Afton mine they own on the outskirts of Kamloops. It is producing ore (a gold, silver, copper mix) and they are in fact investing new money in aid of prolonging the life of that site.

New Gold also owns the Mesquite Gold Mine in Arizona, Cerro San Pedro Gold Mine in

Mexico, and Peak Mines (gold, silver, copper) in Australia. All are already in production. That gives New Gold the revenue stream it needs to build its next project and that is Rainy River, a project the company has been preparing for in Ontario near Fort Frances.

The Rainy River play is under construction right now, employing more than 1,000 in the build phase and it will maintain a regular workforce of about 500 when it begins to produce.

That all adds up, said Bekhuys, to exciting opportunities for the Prince George-Vanderhoof area that forms the community base for Blackwater. What they do at Rainy River is going to form a template for what they do in the centre of B.C. “That is a billion-dollar investment in that region. We should be able to get it into production next year, or actually that would be this year, now wouldn’t it. It’s nice to be able to say that,” he said. “Eighty to 90 per cent of the employment at Rainy River is from the localregional economy. And about 30 per cent are

indigenous; the industry average is about five per cent. But we’ve really focused on lessons learned from New Afton about building partnerships, and in a very similar manner, that’s what we are doing at Blackwater. We’ve had a lot of really fantastic lessons learned from New Afton and Rainy River that we will be able to use for Blackwater.”

One of the most aggressive exploration programs in B.C. mining history went into the earlier planning phases of Blackwater. New Gold did extraordinary amounts of drilling in the target area to give the clearest possible picture of the gold’s presence under the earth. That work is now complete, for the most part. The next year will be spent moving through the requirements of B.C.’s and Canada’s environmental assessment processes.

“We are extremely supportive of that process and how it is working in British Columbia,” Bekhuys said. “So far it has been going very well. We’ve been getting great feedback from the participants in that process - the public,

THE PRINCE GEORGE CITIZEN

INDUSTRY AND TRADES indigenous people, regulators - and we have tried to incorporate the design suggestions they’ve made so we do have the most culturally and environmentally safe and sound project we can.”

A large part of the process, Bekhuys said, is bringing the affected First Nations on whose territories the Blackwater site sits, into partnership on the project. The days are long over of natural resource companies taking from the land for only their own benefit.

“Its important for us to operate on a principled basis and one of the main principals is to work closely with the First Nations of that area, and that benefits should accrue to the people closest to the

New Gold Rainy River Plant Site

site of the mine. We are guests on indigenous peoples’ land and we need to be respectful of the history there. In that respect we are working with about eight bands located quite closely to the Blackwater mine site, and we are pretty open to discuss the project with all the surrounding aboriginal people of that area.”

Although their groundbreaking exploration program has wrapped up, 2017 will nonetheless be an explosive year for New Gold Inc. as they pursue their production goals at four existing mines, cut the ribbon on a brand new one in Ontario, and adjust the final pieces of the puzzle for our own region’s pending gold mine.