On Friday, a local advocacy group called BV Clean Air Now, along with Conservation North, sent a letter to the provincial Minister for Environment and Climate Change, George Hayman, calling on him to suspend the permit for the Drax wood pellet plant in Smithers.

The letter to Minister Hayman alleges that Newpro, the former pellet plant proponent, misled the government and local communities about the kind of wood they use to make pellets.

The Drax Group, based in the UK purchased the pellet plant a few years ago and since then, BV Clean Air Now says the company isn’t using slash at all, but full logs to make pellets and that their permit should be suspended until the company can prove it utilises slash piles as well as how many slash piles it utilises even year.

Len Vanderstar, a local habitat protections biologist and Director of BV Clean Air Now, is on the show to talk about why he and others are calling for the closure of the Drax pellet plant.