Dear Editor,
Did you know that each one of you [living in McBride] (men, women and children) spent $1,000 on something you will never see or get any benefit from?
That’s right.
A $215,000 culvert that a “doer” would have repaired for about $10,000, or less.
Better yet, management who actually kept an eye on infrastructure may have prevented this issue. Next, a firing and settlement with no economic return.
The next big one an MCFC house cleaning costing people from McBride another estimated $250,000 with no benefit. The highly priced help can’t even get a cutting permit to keep the mills running.
Now we have a lot of experience/expertise in our community, but no requests were made by Village Council for advice to help resolve those issues. It appears our mayor and council have no contact with ‘doer’ members of the community.
Now the real kicker came at the MCFC AGM when the mayor said they were going to continue milking the forest of white wood to pay for this foolishness. After, in a conversation with a principal, we were told they actually conferred with legal counsel as to whether or not they could successfully default on cedar contracts.
Note that in the TRC default the administration wanted $6 more per tonne and defaulted on the contract, and the lawsuit is still outstanding. The administration then hired an Economic Development Officer at a wage of $60,000 to find jobs.
Note they were willing to give up 50 plus jobs, millions in village income for $6 per tonne.
By my calculations $60,000 equals a subsidy for 10,000 metric tonnes. I guess this is the bureaucratic way.
Currently the mills have a contract for a set value and MCFC forced a $5 per tonne increase.
Presently our forest is a warren of high-grade logging where MCFC has done no development. The white wood has been sold for well under market value leaving the cedar standing. Cedar is our past and future hope. Currently all white wood revenue leaves the valley. Only logging revenue remains, which also remains when logging cedar, but cedar creates many local manufacturing jobs and if utilized properly all parts of the log have value.
McBride, we need a MCFC business manager who knows business, cedar management and forest management. Do not hire someone without these qualifications. I also suggest buying the TRC mill site. Hire Tom Ryan. Resolve your legal issues.
Whatever your opinion of ‘my opinion’, go to every council meeting.
Take your coffee and ask questions about these issues at every meeting. Make it a social outing. Get three councillors to make a motion and vote to hire a MCFC business manager.
Then I suggest the MCFC directors be a balance of mill owners and community members to help the manager with policy.
You are a shareholder in this business. There is no room for personalities. It is supposed to create and stabilize local jobs. We all know it has failed because it is not managed as a business.
McBride, take back your town. Get off the fence.
Village Council, get a backbone and seek advice from experienced locals. Get away from your lawyers, accountants and engineers. You and they are killing our town.
Councillors stand up now, live up to your elected responsibilities and join the McBride Team.
Respectfully submitted,
Dave Shantz
McBride, B.C.
