The District of Houston had one major priority when seeking meetings with provincial ministers this year—keeping Houston-area logs milled locally. That was the objective on the minds of a contingent from the District who attended the 2025 Union of BC Municipalities (UBCM) convention in Victoria from Sept. 22 to Sept. 26. …Mayor Shane Brienen said that the District is working on ideas for what to do with the old Canfor mill site, which was, at one point, the top employer in the area before the company shut it down on May 9, 2024. The Houston contingent to UBCM met with the Ministry of Forests to discuss potential funding and other details, as they had in July when Minister Ravi Parmar was touring the North. “We’re figuring something out there,” Brienen said. “We want to keep our logs milled locally.”