City of WL's response to Sawmill closures by Tolko/West Fraser

I received the following news release from the City of Williams Lake, on the recent temporary closure of both Tolko/West Fraser sawmills/planer mills in Williams Lake:

The City of Williams Lake has been increasingly impacted by the global recession with recent news that Tolko will be indefinitely suspending operations at their three Williams Lake saw mills. These shut-downs are in addition to a number of other curtailments and shut-downs in the local forest industry and workforce reductions in the mining industry.

Approximately 800 jobs have been directly affected, which will impact as many as 400 indirect jobs in the community. “This is unprecedented in our City” states Mayor Kerry Cook. “Never before have we seen so many individuals lose their jobs, with limited opportunities for them in other industries or sectors.”

Mayor and Council, some of whom have been directly affected themselves, are taking immediate steps to deal with these economic challenges in the short term and into the future.

The municipal budget is in the final stages of development and critical decisions will be required on the part of Council in order to continue providing the necessary levels of service while mitigating the financial burden on taxpayers. “Spending priorities will be closely scrutinized, both in operations and capital programs and all opportunities to reduce expenditures will be explored.” states Councilor Tom Barr who holds the Financial Portfolio for Council.

The Mayor is organizing a meeting with key business and industry leaders in the coming days to discuss how the various sectors are planning to deal with the current crisis and to gather input on how Council initiatives and policies can help mitigate the economic and social impacts and influence long term recovery.

Mayor Cook maintains a positive attitude, stating “We are a resilient community and we will get through this crisis by working together, making prudent decisions and planning for a better future.”

The City does have some tough budget decisions ahead, but with the RCMP Budget taking up almost 1/3 of the entire City budget, Council may be forced to reduce City services' for this year and next and hold taxes at 0% until the economy recovers, along with any other measure(s) that local business leaders' suggest to Mayor Cook to help re-start the local economy. Certainly, I wish Councillor Tom Barr the best of luck as he crafts the 2009 Budget with the state of the local economy in mind