Kevin Sytsma, Tom Hoffman & Randy Chadney

Williams Lake city council has endorsed Tolko Industries Ltd.’s request that the provincial government adopt policies that would make harvesting and extraction of fire-damaged timber economically viable. Council agreed to write a letter of support for the request after Tolko representatives made a presentation during a regular council meeting last Tuesday. “The Province needs to look at a stumpage rate that is commercially viable and recognize the added costs companies are going to face in order to process the fire-damaged timber,” Tolko woodlands manager Tom Hoffman told council. …In the Quesnel and Williams Lake area about 46 million cubic metres of timber and another nine million cubic metres in the 100 Mile House area were impacted by the wildfires, Hoffman said.