Families in Barriere and Louis Creek will suffer the loss of 189 high-paying jobs as a result of Tolko's decision not to rebuild the mill lost to the forest fire. Kamloops-North Thompson MLA Kevin Krueger and Forests Minister Michael de Jong were quoted in the local press expressing their disappointment with the company's decision. Those who listened to Krueger, the government whip, speak in favour of changes the Campbell government is making to forestry might have a hard time believing his newly found criticism of a forest company.

On March 27th Kruger rose in the legislature and lauded the decision of the Campbell government to remove "all the artificial constraints" like appurtenancy, which requires holders of cutting rights to process the wood at particular mills. That makes it a little hard to believe Kruger's calls for Tolko to lose 20% of its timber supply.

On March 26, 2003, Forests Minister Mike de Jong introduced Bill 29 (Forest Revitalization (Amendment) Act) and said that "The bill will also repeal appurtenancy and timber-processing requirements that force licensees to process timber at specific sawmills - or at sawmills they own or operate - even if other B.C. operators might be able to put the timber to better or higher-valued use. Removing those provisions will allow us to follow through genuinely on the desire that I trust we all have to maximize the value for every stick of timber we harvest within British Columbia."

On May 6, 2003, Joy MacPhail spoke on second reading of Bill 29 and said "The government is asking British Columbians to believe that developers in the forests will respect the public interest and do what is in the best interests of all of us. Without actually transferring ownership, the government is going to allow companies to trade and sell the tenures they have to put in our public lands. The government is commodifying our public resource not for public benefit but for private profit. It is taking what has been and will continue to be a licence of access and turning it into a deed of ownership. Rather than tenure forming the basis for investment in a community, tenure itself will become a commodity that need not even be used at all, let alone employed to the benefit of resource-dependent communities."

The decision not to rebuild the Louis Creek mill is the first of many such decisions that will devastate resource dependent communities throughout BC. In the case of Louis Creek the company and some families will at least get some assistance from disaster relief and insurance coverage. Other mills are on the verge of closing, not because of fires, but because the social contract that tied resources to communities has been broken by the Campbell government. Campbell's MLAs should be honest enough to say the same thing to the families in Barriere and Louis Creek that they said when they were debating the most significant restructuring of the forest industry to occur in the last 50 years. They should also plan to help the workers and communities that will suffer the equivalent of an economic fire as the result of the government's policies.