Fort St. John mayor advocates for local workers at COFI conference

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen was pleasantly surprised to see her concerns regarding the local forestry industry were heard and taken seriously at a recent event.

Hansen, alongside other elected officials from throughout the Peace region, attended the Council of Forest Industries (COFI) conference in Prince George from April 2nd to 4th.

“Forestry in our province and the community of Fort St. John, it provides such dynamic, well-paying jobs and it’s helped build our province,” Hansen said on the April 11th episode of This Week in the Peace when asked about why she chose to attend.

“We get together and we talk about the trends, but it also gives us an opportunity to meet with other elected officials in the province.”

Those other elected officials included B.C. premier David Eby and Minister of Forests Ravi Parmar.

Hansen said she wanted to show the people in attendance at the conference what the human impact of decisions like the closure of the Canfor sawmill looks like.

“December 19th, the last [wooden] board went through the Canfor mill, and that board, the staff signed,” Hansen explained. “It has the signatures on it.

“I was talking to the HR staff, letting them know that I was going to this conference where we’re going to have, easily, a handful of provincial ministers there,” she continued, “and they said, ‘Mayor Hansen, let me ask, let’s see if we can send you with this ten-foot board.”

The board was too large to fit in Hansen’s truck, so she recreated it by photographing the signatures and taping the photo to a smaller board.

“When I went up onto the stage, I couldn’t bring those 221 families with me, but I could bring something to represent them,” she said. 

“With the ministers and their assistants in the audience, to have that conversation, to say ‘your decisions, while they have good intentions, this is the outcome from it, and what do we do about it?’”

Hansen said struggling business owners want to see and hear actions from their elected officials, not apologies.

“When we’re hearing of, whether it’s a business or a person in our community and they’re struggling, you stand up and you try and help them,” Hansen said. “You take action, you don’t wait to go after and say ‘sorry.’ ‘Sorry’ isn’t going to help these families.”

Hansen advocated for both provincial and federal investment into sawmills, as well as the improvement of the surrounding infrastructure like transportation, citing the rail line between Fort St. John and Fort Nelson as an example.

“Right now, our rail line between that chunk, it’s running at maybe three-quarter capacity weight, and they have to go way slower. So it’s taking four days when it should take one day, and everyone’s pointing fingers.”

She says she expects CN Rail to match any government contributions to improve that rail line, which would improve the forest industry both in the Peace region and beyond.

When asked if she felt her concerns were heard, Hansen said it felt like a significant improvement over the 2024 COFI conference.

“New minister, new mandate,” she said. 

“The province has heard from the electorate: things need to change. While they have their goals, and I do respect them, it also has to be balanced with keeping people working.”

Hansen encouraged finding a solution to maintain a strong economy and protect the environment, which the government is looking into.

The COFI released a study on sustainability in the province’s forestry sector on April 1st.

To view the full interview with Hansen, look below.