JUNE 2014 BCBUSINESS 57 CLINT FRASER
b y D A V I D G O D S A L L
L
eaders in B.C.'s small northern mill towns have
high hopes that tourism will o set job losses
in the forestry sector—and if you stand in the
parking lot of almost any mill in the province
and look around, the reasons why so many
are excited about that potential are obvious. Mills
were built where wilderness meets transportation
infrastructure—road, rail and water. The arteries
that brought forest products out to global markets
can bring visitors in, and these areas are surrounded
by the mountains, valleys, lakes and rivers that will
attract them. The hope is that the natural bounty
that built forestry can also give rise to a new, service-
driven type of economy.
Forestry in British Columbia has su ered greatly
in the past decade. When the U.S. recession of 2008-
09 caused new home construction to atline, B.C.'s
mills ground to a halt. Between 2006 and 2009 lum-
ber production in the province declined by 44.4 per
cent. The sector has slowly been recovering, but the
heady days of pre-recession forestry are not likely to
return, so many B.C. mill towns are looking to tour-
ism to pick up the slack.
Smithers and Burns Lake—in the heart of forestry
country along the Yellowhead Highway—are two
towns trying to make the service-sector shift. And
while both share similar geography, demography,
size and history, their prospects for attracting visi-
tor dollars are very di erent.
SMITHERS
Smithers (pop. 5,404) lies on the banks of the Bulk-
ley River, where Paci c Inland Resources operates a
large sawmill. In 2013, the town celebrated its cen-
tennial, and as part of the celebration, local leaders
remediated an old service station and made a timber-
frame stage and band shell in the town square. "There
are a lot of creative people in Smithers—performing
How Smithers and Burns Lake are looking to replace mill jobs with tourism
A Tale of Two Towns
S P E C I A L R E P O R T
Northern B.C.
GONE FISHIN'
Smithers locals say the area
boasts the world's best
steelhead shing.
p56-59-Smithers_june.indd 57 2014-05-01 1:31 PM
