The owners of the Kamloops Pulp Mill have requested help from the City of Kamloops to help adjust provincial policy when it comes to accessing wood.

Kruger has presented before council, asking support for policy changes to allow the company’s partners, local sawmills in the area, to gain even more access to burned wood left over from the various fires in the region.

Kruger’s Fibre Manager, Thomas Hoffman, says one of their asks is for the province to expedite salvage permits for the companies to get at the wood before it becomes useless.

“We’ve got 4 million cubic meters of unincumbered fibre within 200 kilometers, noted Hoffman in his presentation.  “We need to look for ways for the province to allow for that to be harvested.”

Hoffman notes the pulp mill doesn’t do its own harvesting, asking the City instead to put pressure on Victoria to allow more emergency salvage permits for area sawmills.

“65 percent of the volume that comes into our mill is chips from the sawmills,” noted Hoffman.  “If they’re not functional, we’re not functional, and vice versa.”

The City of Kamloops is going to be penning a letter to Forests Minister Bruce Ralston, advocating on behalf of Kruger’s wants.

Part of that also calls for more spending by the BC government on suppression to keep wildfires from exploding in size.