By Jennifer Quam

The Village of McBride has hired an independent consultant who will look at the viability of McBride Forest Industries (MFI). The consultant is being paid with dividend paid to the Village by the McBride Community Forest Corporation approximately three months ago.

McBride councillor Allan Frederick said the Village decided to make the move because they want to know if there is something they can do to participate or facilitate in seeing if there is a possibility of getting the mill operational again and providing some jobs to the members of the community.

“The consultant will look at the options for the mill,” said Frederick. “Things will be looked at like if the mill is operational or not, can it run without a timber license, and if there is value to the mill if it was sold off.”

Frederick said that the Village is in no way planning to run the mill itself, if it turns out it can be operational. “Perhaps an employee association might be the way to go or partnerships could be formed with interested parties,” said Frederick.

Frederick said another big question is if a veneer mill like MFI could survive while having to buy timber for the mill. “These are all questions we hoped to have answered shortly,” he said.

Although Frederick would not name the consultant working on the project he said the person was not local and that the Village does expect the report to be completed by mid July.

McBride Community Forest Corporation Manager Marc von der Gonna said that there is no way their allowable cut could sustain a mill operation the size of MFI. “We would have to have a cut four or five times bigger than what we do,” said von der Gonna. “We do have an interest in MFI if it was determined that it could be operational though. It could be a potential source for some of our wood to go if it was determined that MFI was a feasible business.”