Residents unable to heat homes amid northern B.C. wood pellet shortage

Darrin Super's heart sinks every time he has to turn someone away who is looking for wood pellets. 

A wood pellet shortage in northwestern B.C. means suppliers have no pellets to deliver to retailers, which means people who rely on those wood pellets for fuel in their wood stoves are out of luck. 

Super, the store manager at the Bulkley Valley Home Centre in Houston, B.C., received an email on Jan. 9, days before the province-wide cold snap, saying that the supplier had completely run out of wood pellets and would not be able to deliver any. 

"Usually I have 50 to 60 tonnes sitting in my yard at any given time," he told Daybreak North host Carolina de Ryk. "Our community relies on this for their sources of heat."

"I would say the majority of people here have wood stoves."

The store has been without wood pellets for two weeks. 

Now, he's turning to suppliers in Alberta, even though his town is surrounded by trees. 

"There is nobody locally," he said. 

"The forestry industry is our No. 1 industry here locally and we have to go to our neighbouring province for wood pellets. It just doesn't seem right."

Super believes mill shutdowns and curtailments around the province are major contributors to the shortage. For that reason, he said he wants government officials to step in and find a way to keep the forestry industry, which is Houston's largest industry, afloat.   

"I'd like to see the mills run at full capacity again, have that fibre being sent to the pellet plants, have our pellets made and I'd still have a full inventory of pellets," Super said.

Listen to the full interview here: