New Local 66 Members on Environmental Cutting Edge

DATE: December 01, 2011

Vancouver—Local 66’s newest members are on the cutting edge of biodiversity and eco-harvesting.

The members are employed by Ledcor Resources and Transportation, a new company that sources and processes fibre from the forestry industry. The company provides one-stop shopping for wood fibre to customers such as Howe Sound Pulp and Paper on Vancouver Island.

Ledcor Resources takes previously unusable logs that were slash burned or left on the mountainside as waste and turns them into woodchips. It then takes this “hog fuel,” as the woodchips are called, and hauls it away to collection points on the Fraser River and delivers it to customers on barges towed by tugboats.

The whole process is run by members of Transport, Construction, and General Employees Association, Local 66, employed by Ledcor Resources and Transportation. A third of the employees are Aboriginals. The company specifically fostered relationships with First Nations from the province’s interior where the fibre is sourced.

BC Premier Christy Clark was on hand to help with the official launch of the new company at the Vancouver Convention Centre. Moored outside the Convention Centre was the tugboat Storm Wave, piloted by Local 66 member Mike Simpson, towing one of twelve enormous barges recently purchased by Ledcor.

“We’re proud to represent Local 66 members working for this exciting new company,” says Don Mundy, BC representative. “Ledcor Resources is 100 percent Canadian. They’re creating jobs and at the same time they’re protecting BC’s environment.”