 My name is Doug Roatley. I'm the parliamentary secretary for forests and MLA for Nanaimo North Cowichan. I'd first like to acknowledge that we're gathered today on the traditional territory of the Coast Salish and Hulkeminum speaking people. And we're very grateful to them for the privilege of assembling here on their territory. It's great to be here also in my home riding with you and to be here, of course, with Premier Eby. I'm very proud of this facility and this community. And I'm also joined by my colleague, Brenda Bailey, the Minister of Jobs, Economic Development and Innovation. And I'm very grateful for her presence here. As well, we're joined by Stu Gibson, the Chief Operating Officer of Paper Excellence and our host today. Thank you, Stu. And Gavin McGarregle, Uniform Regional Director, Jeff Daw, President and Public and Private Workers of Canada, local too. And Travis Gregson, the President of Local 1132. Thank you very much. Our rural communities, as we all know, are the backbone of British Columbia. And Crofton's long history as a forestry community is vital to the strength of Vancouver Island. We've got good news to share with you today and that will make a big difference to the people here in Crofton and in the surrounding communities throughout the region. I grew up here and we were always well aware of the importance of this facility. And I, friends who I first experienced the notion of shift work and all of those things. It's so important to our community and we all know that. And to let you know more about our plans to support this community, I'm very proud to present to you and welcome the Premier of British Columbia, the Honourable David Evie. Thanks very much, Doug. It's an honor to join everyone here today. Great to see so many happy faces here on the territory of the Hulkamene, I'm speaking Coast Salish people. I'm joined to, well, you've heard the introductions. I won't repeat the introductions, but the speech has them right there. So I'll just skip right ahead. You know, we're all here because we're committed to building an economy that works for everyone in the province. And that is especially true in communities like Crofton and rural communities across our province. And we want a strong future, not just for the whole economy, but also for the forest sector. I wore my forest sector green tie today. We wanna do what we can to support forest workers across the province. We know though that the stresses on our forest haven't been greater and especially in the interior. Workers know it, their families know it, there's lots of pressures on the industry right now. People are looking for security in the forest sector for a strong future for the sector, for themselves, their communities and the families. And that's we are aiming to deliver in partnership with you. But we got a lot of work to do, a lot of catching up to do in the forest sector to make sure that those secure jobs are there. We've had bad land use planning across our province. We've had short-term thinking that's made some very serious problems worse. And in recent years and parts of our province, forest fires, flooding, affecting timber supply, beetle kill, in many parts of rural British Columbia, despite an overall strong economy in our province, rural communities are hurting and we see that. And we won't stand by and do nothing while that's happening. We're gonna take action and that's why we're all here today. Last fall, Paper Excellence announced it was gonna curtail operations here indefinitely. The mill was gonna be closed. And I am just so glad to be here today with you to announce that the mill will soon be up and running again. More than 100 people back to work here on the site, which is good news for families, the community of Crofton and certainly for the whole province of British Columbia. I'd like to recognize and thank Paper Excellence bringing forward the proposal for this project. This proposal isn't just about opening the closed paper mill. It's also about our whole province goal about reducing carbon pollution and about forestry as a solution to the climate challenge that we face. For example, the Crofton mill is gonna be producing water-resistant paper packaging and cutlery that's gonna replace those single-use plastic items made out of petroleum. It's good news for our economy. It's good news for this community. It's good news for everybody. This and other innovations will keep this mill competitive. Reduce production waste, use fewer trees for the same volume of product and at the same time, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. It's a great plan and we're happy to work with them and with all of the workers here to deliver that for British Columbians. I also wanna recognize the federal government. They were a strong partner at the table for this project. Our provincial contribution of four and a half million dollars has leveraged another 14 and a half million dollars from the federal government to form a joint investment with Paper Excellence. You know, in many parts of the province these are tough days for the forestry sector and in British Columbia. But when times are tough, that's when you need to know that government has your back. We've got a strong MLA here in Doug Routley who has your back every single day and every member of our government is committed to forest workers across the province. We recognize the need for investment as we innovate to ensure secure opportunities for you and for your families. This is about making sure that workers here in Crofton and in communities across BC can build a good life in their own home communities. We're committed to listening and working with First Nations with communities and stakeholders and industry to confront the challenges that we face. And just this week, I've made a number of announcements about how we're making that happen. To increase fiber supply, for example, we just announced $50 million for the Forest Enhancement Society of BC. This is a group that makes it possible to recover otherwise low value fiber, residual fiber that would be burned in slash piles in the province or maybe was burned in forest fires to get it to mills and put it to work. We announced $90 million for the BC Jobs Manufacturing Fund. This is for forestry companies, paper companies that want to add another line to introduce a new product just like you're doing right here in Crofton. It could include mass timber production as well or paper packaging. The bottom line is this, forestry is and will remain a foundational industry in British Columbia. It's part of our solution around the climate crisis. It's our competitive advantage and it's people like you who make it happen every single day. We are a place where innovation happens and we need that innovation to expand in the forest sector to deliver the products of tomorrow for British Columbians and for the world. This is Crofton. This is the work you do. This is British Columbia and our government will always be there to support workers and communities like yours now, today and into the future. Thank you so much for the work you do every day Thank you very much, Premier. I'd also like to echo that no matter what lies ahead, our government will continue to be there to support people just like we're doing here in Crofton. I'd also like to note that the mayor of North Couch and Rob Douglas is here and just as a reminder to us how important this mill is. His dad was a 40 year employee here at Crofton. So thanks for being here, Rob. I'd also now like to introduce Brenda Bailey, my friend, minister of jobs, economic development and innovation. Thank you very much, Doug. Good morning, everybody. Thanks for being here. Gold hands are staying warm, I hope. Doug, thanks very much for being such a strong voice for the people of Nanaimok, North Couchin. Standing up for workers, for their families and communities. I'm honored to be your colleague in the legislature. I'd also like to acknowledge the Helault Nation and the Halkam. I said it wrong, didn't I? Halkamina, thank you. Speaking peoples upon whose territory we're gathered today. Since being asked by Premier Eby to serve as British Columbia's minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, I've had the pleasure of meeting so many people who are deeply passionate about our province and who are telling me about the challenges that they're facing in these globally uncertain times between ongoing effects from the pandemic, extreme weather events to global inflation and weakening paper markets overseas. These challenges are impacting people and families day to day lives. And I want British Columbians to know that no matter what lies ahead, our government will continue to be there to support people. Just like we're doing here in Crofton today, I'd like to acknowledge Stu Gibson and the team at Paper Excellence for building forward a plan that's restoring and protecting jobs that families in this community count on and helping to meet the goals of our stronger BC economic plan for clean and inclusive growth. Today's announcement is good news for the people in Crofton and the surrounding communities. It gets people back to work. It keeps local jobs local so families can stay in their communities. It supports community businesses that rely on these workers to shop in mid-island every day. And it will help BC meet its climate commitments. I grew up in the NIMO and in fact, my dad's first job as a teenager was working right here in Crofton at the Pulp and Paper Mill. The forest industry supported my family and I believe in this industry. I've seen the challenges of boom and bust cycles and I know the value of stable jobs that pay well for families, for communities and for our province. I want to take a moment to speak directly to the workers here in Crofton. I know these last few months have been challenging and there have been many tough days, I'm sure. But I want to thank you for your determination. It's inspiring. I want you to know that Premier Eby and our government will always have your back because you're part of the engine that runs our province. And the truth is, if you're not working, the province isn't working. I want forestry workers here in Crofton and all over Bridge Columbia to know that we remain steadfast in our support for BC's forest industry today and for generations to come. This is the core of our stronger BC economic plan. It's why we're making investments and ensuring that there are supports in place to help workers. Whether it's here in Crofton, new funding for the Forestry Enhancement Society of BC or our new BC Jobs Manufacturing Plan. These investments are all about creating opportunities for workers, for their families, for communities. BC will continue to work with partners in industry like paper excellence, with the federal government, with indigenous leaders and organizations, with workers and local governments to give every community the tools that they need to build and to innovate, to grow and succeed. Because an economy that is built for all, for workers and families right here in Crofton, is an economy that's built to succeed. Thank you. Thank you very much, Minister. Next, I'm pleased to introduce Travis Gregson. He's the local president for 1132. Thank you, everyone. On behalf of local 1132, I would like to say thank you to Premier Abbey, the provincial government, the federal government, for getting this, giving us this opportunity to restart the machine. I would like to thank our founder, Jackson, for believing in Stu Gibson and his team for putting this together and having us another opportunity to show that we are extremely viable here. I would like to thank all the staff, all my members who have always believed that this is a viable and a great, great mill. I wanna thank all the, there's way too many to thank, but Rob Douglas, I would like to Jeff Crawford, so, so many local politicians, local people, ministers, who jumped, immediately jumped to the table, work BC, when we didn't have this in the future, looking at it, who jumped to try and find us, places to go, give us the tools to find new jobs and stay in our community. And I am once again, so grateful. This is the first step in hopefully getting another machine going. This is a great step for British Columbia, for other mills that are going to be watching this and they're gonna see that perhaps other Unifor and PPWC mills will get this same opportunity in a time when it is hard, forced industry is struggling. And so, once again, I have so many thank yous. I can't mention everybody's names, but thank you anyway. Thank you very much Travis, and thanks for all the work you do for a community and for your members. And now I'm pleased to introduce Jeff Daw. He's the President of Public and Private Workers of Canada, Local 2. Welcome to Crawford and everyone. PPWC would like to say they're very appreciative of the federal and provincial governments for the investment in the Croft and Mill site and the Cowichan Valley. We would also like to thank Paper Excellence for believing in BC Forestry and continually making investments since they acquired us in 2018. While other companies in the province are shutting down or leaving, Paper Excellence is proving it's in it for the long haul to better communities and its residents throughout the province. We're appreciative seeing government and Paper Excellence working together to support workers in Croft. The investment for this project will help secure well-paying jobs that will attract more people to beautiful Cowichan Valley. It will also help reduce the mill's environmental curve of footprint. Thank you. Thank you very much Jeff. And I want to note that this mill, the workers, the management, the community have collaborated in so many ways. This mill's footprint has been reduced over the years. Since I was in MLA, I remembered them talking about 60, 70% reductions in demand on water that has gone into the 80s and 90%. So people are aware of the work that's been done here to improve this mill, and this will go another step further and make it more efficient and protect those jobs. I'd like now to introduce our final speaker. Stu Gibson, he's the chief operating officer of Paper Excellence. What's up Stu? Okay, when you're lost to speak, you're gonna be perhaps repeating a few things, but let me start by saying that we are truly privileged to be operating on the traditional lands of the Coast Salish people and the ancestral land of the Hulup First Nation. I'm truly honored to see such representation from our elected officials here today. It's not lost on me. What a busy schedule that they've had this week. I also like to acknowledge the ministry staff who put a lot of work to make a session like this possible. Mayor Douglas for you being here and our employees and the media for your support. This is a very exciting time for Crofton. I think we heard from our Premier, but this has been a very, very difficult period in our industry. And when you're faced with difficult situations, you gotta look for solutions. And looking towards innovation as a pathway to a future is what we've had to do. And in doing so, we've been in conversations with our governments for the last number of months. And in those conversations, what we learned that our provincial and federal governments have a shared vision of collaboration and innovation for the success of the forest industry. So today I'm just tremendously proud to be announcing that in partnership with both the provincial and the federal government, the paper excellence will be investing $50 million into our Crofton facility. I'd like to acknowledge that this is the largest investment made in Crofton in more than two decades. This is an investment that will help improve local competitiveness. It's one that's gonna be responding to changes in market sentiments to produce renewable, fiber-based packaging solutions that consumers want. It's gonna be improving the overall efficiency of this site, creating less waste, reducing carbon emissions, and equally important, better utilizing that limited forest resource that we have available to us. But moreover, today marks the return of 100 jobs to Crofton pulp and paper. I'd be remiss if I didn't take a moment to just acknowledge that as an industry, we are tightly coupled. This facility actually provides the pulp that keeps our Port Elberni operation, making the lightweight papers that it does, feeding those same specialty markets. So today is also good news for Port Elberni. It's also good news for those rural communities that continue to harvest and mill products that we are ultimately dependent on. We are a very tight industry. We're gonna be directing $29 million into the restart of our Crofton number two machine with improvements that are gonna allow us to make products that will display single-use plastics. We'll also be putting 18 million into our power generation systems that will allow us to use that ample bark waste that you see when you enter our site to displace fossil fuels, removing 5,600 combustion vehicles off the road in that process. I'd also be remiss if I didn't take a moment to acknowledge that that investment allows us better control of our power boiler and in addition allows us to take more waste from the woods that collectively improves the overall Cowichan Valley air shed, reducing knock socks, and particulate air emissions. This investment is being made possible because governments are committed to innovate in the forest sector. Premier EBL tell you very warmly that we appreciate your commitment to value-added manufacturing in our sector. We're also tremendously appreciative of our federal government through NRKAN, the Honorable Jonathan Wilkinson's ministry for their continued support of IFIT, Innovation and Forest Industry Transformation. We can only be here today if we have confidence that we're gonna have an ongoing supply of fiber. And the recent announcement this week of that continued investment in the Forest Enhancement Society of BC matters, matters to our mills and others that are in our industry. Today's investment is not a destination for us, but the start of a very important journey to continue to innovate and to continue to transition this facility and others like it to be successful in British Columbia for years to come. Our experience has gained us great confidence that working with the likes of Minister Ralston, Minister Bailey, Premier Eby, Federal Minister Wilkinson and others that we will be successful for the long term and continue to support the British Columbia Forest Industry. Thank you. Yeah, thank you very much Stu for all your team has done and you and your team your commitment to developing innovative products that will protect jobs, that this all helps us meet the goals of our stronger BC economic plan for clean innovative growth that will add value to the forest sector and contribute to a stronger BC economy that works for everyone. That concludes the announcement. I'd now like to welcome the Premier back to the podium for questions from the media. Thank you for joining us today. We have members of the media on site here and on the line, for those on the line, please press star one to indicate if you'd like to ask a question. Media asking question, we'll be able to ask one question and one follow up. We're going to start on the line with Richard Sissman from Global News. Go ahead, Richard. We've seen over the last week it's been a very aggressive approach towards the forestry sector. Your government had been criticized for not moving faster than some of the things the sector wanted. Why the change? What has happened here over the last little bit that has led you to make this rapid fire succession of announcements for the sector? Well, I think that every British Columbian can see the strain that the forest industry is under right now. And every British Columbian also understands the foundational nature of the forest industry. And if we're going to be successful as a province, we need a strong forestry sector. I was sworn in now just over 60 days ago. And in that time, I've been focusing announcements on issues that matter to British Columbians, on healthcare, on public safety, on housing. The key priorities for British Columbians, the fourth priority, a strong and sustainable and clean economy. And forestry checks all of those boxes. The workers here are going to be providing the products that get rid of the single-use plastics, the petroleum-based plastics that are clogging up landfills. They're going to be providing sustainable, low-carbon products that the world wants. And that's the future for British Columbia. And that's the kind of economy that our government is going to be building in partnership with every single worker. I don't know if you can see them. They're behind the cameras. Every single worker at this site and forestry workers across the province. Do you have a follow-up, Richard? I do, and it's on an unrelated issue. There's a fan-etched city councillor who's proposing this week a change to the way that speeding tickets are done. Like Finland, British Columbia could consider giving tickets out based on how much someone makes behind the wheel of the car. Do you think these sort of innovative approaches are a way that we can address road safety? But if you make more, if you're an NHL hockey player, you pay more for a speeding ticket than you would if you're a single mother who's making $30,000 a year for any type of traffic violation. Well, it's certainly an interesting suggestion. I think every British Columbian values road safety. We're here in Crofton and in rural communities, especially traffic accidents, collisions, injuring and killing British Columbians when people are driving too quickly, carelessly or well-impaired is a serious issue. Happy to look at any suggestion that people bring forward. This one is an interesting one. I'll say that. Thank you. We're going to return to on the floor here with Skye Ryan from Czech News. Go ahead, Skye. Thanks for the question. Mr. Evie, I'm referring to something that Mr. Gregson earlier alluded to, and that's that there's so many mills like this that are the clinch of their entire communities that are struggling, their workers are being downgraded, or they're seeing these indefinite curtailment statements. I want to ask you what communities you can see this being replicated in, or perhaps you're already hearing interest from after seeing the activity that was able to be happening here. Thanks for the question. The key to today's announcement is really partnership. We need the employers that have the mill sites to bring forward proposals about how we can work together. We need labor to be involved, to help drive it forward. We need the workers on the site to deliver. And as government, we are there with the financial support to make it happen. So we announced $90 million for innovation funds for projects exactly like this across the province. We see opportunities at mill sites that have been curtailed to add new product lines, just like this is happening right here at Crofton to respond to changing market conditions. We see opportunities for mill sites to be used around power generation, for example, up in Powell River. Other opportunities for creation of jobs. It does require though that partnership and for proposals to come forward to government. That's why I want to recognize paper excellence. Stu and his team for identifying the opportunity, coming to government and finding ways for us to partner together. I think there's great opportunity there. Specifically though, is there a particular mills that you're seeing identified as being potential in that? Well, I'm sorry to say that when I was up in Prince George, there was news of CanFour laying off 300 people at a pub mill in that community. And so Prince George is one of those communities where we're gonna have to look at those opportunities to bring those jobs back on a corner of that mill site, for example. There is a biofuel generation site that helps us meet our low carbon fuel standard also operated by CanFour in partnership with another company. So transition to creation of jobs like that, using the mill site, retrofitting mill sites, that news is very fresh. And so we haven't been able to explore those opportunities yet. Up at Powell River, another shuttered mill site, the possibility brought forward by the First Nation there around power generation, really exciting proposal from them. These opportunities are across the province, but we need one of the things that is clear to me as forestry workers, forestry companies, they are ready for innovation. They are ready to bring these proposals forward. And I wanna send the message very clearly that our government wants to partner with them on those initiatives. We have time for one more questions coming from Alan Pelker from Global News. We've heard from different people in the community about how important jobs are. Yet we're still seeing a lot of raw logs being shipped overseas. And is that cutting into jobs and free trade? And I understand it's a very complicated issue. What are your thoughts on having so much of these raw logs shipped overseas? Well, it's a- And do you plan on cutting it at all? Thanks very much. It's really obvious to British Columbians, we need to get more jobs per tree that we have. And that raw logs is almost the definition of getting the least number of jobs out of our timber that we have available in the province. We have put changes in place that require people that wanna export, companies that wanna export those raw logs to offer them first locally for purchase. We're going to continue to look at that issue. But on the key question of fiber supply, people say, well, these are innovations, great value, it is great, but where's the fiber going to come from? You'll see more from us in terms of the kinds of announcements we made yesterday about the Forest Enhancement Society, about getting the burned wood out of forest fire sites so that it can be used in mills, getting the slash and the round wood off of sites that have been cleared by companies to make sure we're not leaving any material in the woods that could be used to create jobs for British Columbians. And we're gonna continue that work with the sector to get every job we can out of the trees we have. And this is unrelated to today's announcement, but I was at my doctor's the other day and I'm thankful to have a doctor, but he was saying he hasn't received any of the funds yet that were in the earlier announcement about a month ago. Yes, that's right. So the announcement a month ago was the agreement with Doctors of BC. Doctors themselves had to vote on to ratify that plan to agree to the plan. And then the plan has to be implemented. My wife is a family physician. She used to be a nurse. And certainly I'm aware of the challenges that have been facing family doctors and the reasons why they've been reluctant to take a traditional family practice. This agreement that we struck with the Doctors of BC is going to be transformational. It's gonna bring doctors back into family practice for those people looking for a family doctor. And we also have an agreement with the College of Physicians and Surgeons and the College of Nurses to recognize the skills and credentials of internationally trained doctors, doctors trained in the US, doctors trained overseas, nurses trained overseas so they can get to work right away in our communities, especially communities like here where we are today in Crofton in smaller communities across the province and make sure that people get the healthcare they need when they need it. Thanks everyone for joining us today. Great, I just wanted to thank... The workers aren't on camera, but I just wanted to say one more time, thank you so much for in particular, your willingness to partner with government for the work you do every day for British Columbians. I'm so glad you were here for the announcement today. Thanks for joining us.