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Ottawa announced second $40M installment of beetle fund money

The Federal government delivered a $39.6 million installment of its $200 million commitment to fight the mountain pine beetle on June 8. Most of the funding, announced by Natural Resources Minister Ga…

The Federal government delivered a $39.6 million installment of its $200 million commitment to fight the mountain pine beetle on June 8. Most of the funding, announced by Natural Resources Minister Gary Lunn, will go toward efforts to control the spread of the beetle.

This was the second installment of money committed by the Conservative government to fight the beetle. In March, Ottawa announced $24.8 million for BC to control the spread along the Alberta-B.C. border, the Vancouver Sun reported.

Doug Routledge, northern vice president for the Council of Forest Industries, said only cold winter weather could stop the infestation, but he said funding to control the spread would buy additional time. Of the $39.6 million, the Ministry of Natural Resources committed to $26 million towards efforts to control the beetle’s spread.

A further $6.5 million is earmarked to protect communities and forest resources from wildfire threats in zones affected by the beetle, while geoscience projects to encourage mining will get $6 million over the next two years. Ottawa is also committing $1.1 million to support ways of recovering economic value from timber already killed by the beetle.