ARMSTRONG, B.C. – The Province of B.C. is putting funding behind four wood-product manufacturers as well as First Nations economies as a way to bolster the wood economy.
The Government of B.C. is contributing as much as $1.34 million toward Armstrong’s Woodtone Specialties’ capital expansion to increase efficiency, improve fibre recovery and add a new product line that will create 50 jobs at the company, states a release. The new product line will see Woodtone producing smooth-face engineered cedar siding and fascia from second-growth knotty wood, which has high demand in a market that traditionally relied on old-growth trees.
According to the release, Woodtone has a memorandum of understanding with the Adams Lake Band, which previously received $1 million from the province’s Rural Economic Diversification and Infrastructure Program (REDIP) to create an Indigenous forestry supply chain joint venture alongside both Woodtone and Gilbert Smith Forest Products. The REDIP project will support job growth by providing training and new employment to Adams Lake Band members while providing a new revenue stream.
The funding comes from the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund (BCMJF), which supports for-profit organizations to plan and launch shovel-ready, high-value industrial and manufacturing projects. Applications for the fund are open and being approved on a rolling basis.
The BCMJF is also supporting three Indigenous-led planning projects from Ulkatcho First Nation-owned West Chilcotin Forest Products Ltd. in Anahim Lake, Stuwix Resources Ltd. in Merritt, and Lil’wat Forestry Ventures Ltd. in Mount Currie. The funding received will help determine operational needs, undertake market assessments and complete full business cases for capital projects that diversify product offerings.
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