Duncan - Re: "Cut to mill hours could close doors: manager" Windsor, Detroit, Pennsylvania, rural British Columbia have a common thread - that of being abandoned by their respective governments in the name of free trade.
Jobs moved overseas en masse (think log exports) decimating local economies and enabling other countries to become more prosperous, not always lifting their citizens from poverty but, in one instance, to build a military of unfathomable proportions instead.
The middle class in North America has contracted dramatically; the number of middleincome workers has plummeted. The upshot is far less economic activity and diminished payroll taxes to government coffers to finance government programs, thus impoverishing us all.
The sawmill at Cowichan Bay provides much-needed employment for the local economy. If the Cowichan Bay Western Forest Products mill were forced to close due to a small number of noise concerns it is feasible to think the logs could simply be exported to enrich other countries' economies.
Many jobs would be lost. Support and supply jobs are fiver for every mill job, meaning 600 to 700 jobs and the economic prosperity they create would be lost. Please, let's instead do what can be done to try to lessen the noise and carry on in peaceful coexistence.
Incidentally, an acquaintance who lives in the area in question tells me the mill isn't the real noise culprit - the neighbour's barking dog is.
Julie Foster
Duncan