B.C. forestry towns hit hard by the mountain pine beetle will use federal cash to see whether they can produce hemp commercially.
The project in the District of 100 Mile House, about 200 km northwest of Kamloops, will be funded through the federal Community Economic Diversification Initiative (CEDI).
Ottawa will put up $235,665 for the district to launch a hemp production pilot project, Kamloops MP Betty Hinton announced Thursday.
The project will look at the viability of an industrial hemp processing facility for the area and will also include the production of 200 acres of industrial hemp test plots, plus product development and test marketing.
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Fibre from industrial hemp can be used in to make products such as particleboard, insulation materials, and countertops. Industrial hemp crops are non-psychoactive strains of cannabis sativa and are not to be confused with the illegal strains that a 2004 Fraser Institute study estimated as a $7 billion industry in B.C. alone.
CEDI, a two-year, $33 million program, is part of Ottawa’s $200 million plan to help British Columbia’s forestry sector and forestry-dependent communities handle the short- and long-term effects of the mountain pine beetle infestation on B.C.’s forestry sector.
A series of recent mild winters and dry summers in the B.C. interior led to an infestation of the beetle in the region’s stands of mature lodgepole pine. The infestation, as of last year, had hit an estimated 33.3 million acres of Crown forest.
The 100 Mile House project was announced at the same time as a CEDI investment of $149,800 for the Northern Secwepemc Cultural Society to study the feasibility of a regional First Nations Cultural Centre.
