There is no change atop of the leadership of the Local 1-417 of the United Steelworkers Union in Kamloops.

Marty Gibbons has been acclaimed to another three year term. Gibbons says, his 1000 members, mainly in the forest sector, need job certainty.

“Its interesting based on industry, one thing that we believe is important to all our members and the community that we finally get some sort of timber supply agreement with these communities, which keeps these trees in our community.”

Forests Minister Doug Donaldson says, the situation in Merritt where the Tolko Mill shutdown two years ago is a tough one.

“We are having major licensees have large volumes of publicly held resources like the forests, and its up them to make sure that the fibre is available to smaller players in the industry.”

Donaldson says, the government can no longer order a company to keep the wood in Merritt for processing, as that law was thrown out by the former Liberal government.