Fraser Valley/Okanagan/Victoria/Rob Shaw/Glacier Media) – BC’s Agriculture Minister – MLA for Abbotsford-Mission Pam Alexis, has put out a public plea for packing house services. This in the shadow of the BC Tree Fruits collective, closing services after 88 years.
FVN story on the collapse of the collective, published July 30 is here.
As expected, this has become an election issue for both BC United and the BC Conservatives.
As farmers scramble, Rob Shaw with The Orca/Glacier Media , published an August 7 story which reads in part: In the weeks since the collapse of the BC Tree Fruits Cooperative, (MLA Pam) Alexis has gone invisible. Livelihoods, and in some cases generations of farms, are on the line. Grown men have shed tears in meetings. And the minister? Her only response has been a series of canned statements, issued through her communications officials, that read like they were generated by ChatGPT. It’s not even clear if she’s working, or on holiday. The ministry she leads hasn’t done much better. As the cooperative imploded into court proceedings, agriculture staff, which had observer roles at the board, did nothing to stop it. The province remains flatfooted as the cooperative prepares to sell off its critical assets. Shaw’s full story is here.
