Okanagan company Woodtone invites minister to visit Spall plant

Hal Hanlon has issued an open invitation for the BC Minister of Forests to pay a visit - again.

Hanlon is the president of Woodtone Specialties in Spallumcheen, a wood plant that is taking value added to whole new levels.

Last spring, Hanlon invited MLA Doug Donaldson to tour the facility and given the state of the forest industry the time is right to visit a company that is expanding while others are laying off.

The amount of fibre that can be harvested will also be reduced in future, making the work Woodtone does even more important.

The company takes small pieces of wood that were destined for the chipper or burner from area sawmills and turns them into large, valuable pieces of wood coveted for a variety of construction projects.

“We partner with a lot of the primary mills around the Okanagan particularly, and we buy a lot of the lengths and odds and ends they can't get rid of,” said Chad Richmond, Woodtone territory manager and product manager.

Those shorter pieces of wood are then milled and finger jointed to make dimensional lumber.

Hanlon said the invite was sent to Donaldson in May, but the only response was an invitation to attend an engagement session that left him unimpressed.

Months later, the invitation to the NDP MLA still stands.
Hanlon said the minister and premier talk about the future of the forest industry in BC is not to cut more fibre.

“There is going to be less fibre cut, but to add more value to it,” said Hanlon. “They always mention they support value added and I would like to know what that means. What does support mean? What does supporting the value-added side of the industry mean?”

Hanlon said there are numerous small operations that are adding value to harvested wood, but few do it on the scale of Woodtone which is expected to employ 100 unionized workers by the summer.

Castanet has reached out to the ministry for comment.