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Forest Minister Doug Donaldson has approved the transfer of Canfor Corp.’s timber-harvesting rights in the North Thompson to rival Interfor Corp. in a long-awaited decision released Friday.

The proposed sale for $60 million was part of the arrangements Canfor made upon closing its Vavenby sawmill last summer, eliminating 172 jobs and dealing a serious blow to the economy around Clearwater.

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The transfer of harvesting rights, which amount to 349,000 cubic metres of timber per year, was intended to shore up operations for Interfor’s mill at Adams Lake, but needed the Minister of Forests Lands Natural Resource Operations and Rural Development under new rules introduced last fall.

“Under the previous government, companies could trade tenure like they were hockey cards, and the people impacted were often the last to find out,” Donaldson said in a news release, “even when it resulted in the loss of hundreds of jobs.”