FORESTS MINISTER Rich Coleman sees the northwest’s woods as being prime candidates to provide the fuel to burn to generate badly-needed electricity.

Speaking in Terrace last week while hosting one of his provincial roundtable forestry sessions, Coleman said he was impressed with the ideas he had heard.

“I think there’s opportunity here for bio-energy,” said Coleman. “I know when I was here two or three weeks ago with the premier and in meeting your economic development people there was a lot of excitement and I think that’s a possibility moving forward.”

Having people and groups already focussed on a common goal made for a different kind of roundtable discussion than has taken place in other regions, he added.

“Elsewhere, tenure has been an issue. But not here. Here I see agreement already on working together,” Coleman said.

Burning wood to generate electricity has surfaced elsewhere in B.C., particularly in the interior where the pine beetle has killed huge swaths of forests.

Coleman’s roundtable tour of B.C. was first announced in January by Premier Gordon Campbell as one way of reviving an otherwise devastated forest industry.

Mills across the province have been shutting down, partially in response to the collapsing American new home construction market.

The roundtables are intended to come up with ideas to perk up the industry.

Roundtable members come from all facets of the forest industry, hearing submissions all over the province.

The sessions themselves are closed but summaries are made available afterward on the roundtable website.