More hard news for Northern BC’s forestry sector was delivered yesterday (Monday).
West Fraser announced the Fraser Lake sawmill will be permanently closing, leaving 175 people out of work.
In a release, the company stated the decision was made due to the inability to access economically viable fibre in the region.
Brian O’Rourke, the United Steelworkers 1-2017 Branch Leader, said the announcement blindsided him.
“I received the phone call from West Fraser just prior to their crews and media,” he said. “I figured, like many many times before when I get a call from that employer, there would be some place curtailed for a short time. This news yesterday was devastating.”
O’Rourke said the union and West Fraser will be meeting over the next “short while” to discuss adjustment plans and options for impacted people.
He thinks one partial cause of the closures seen recently comes from a government removal of a pertinency that required logs harvested in an area to be processed in that area.
“Right now there is no requirement to tie logs to communities,” O’Rourke explained. “A lot of places that we are seeing logs move could be coming from BC timber sales – it goes to the highest bidder in, or outside the area who can transport their logs to wherever.”
Sarrah Storey is the mayor of Fraser Lake, says the last few days have been “tough.”
“I don’t think I have talked to this many people in two days other than at a conference,” she said. “It has been hard for our community and the people.”
“I have had messages asking ‘hey, do you have a job for me? I just lost my job at the sawmill.’ We are just trying to put it all together.”
She said there will be an emergency meeting with BC NDP MLA Nathan Cullen and regional First Nations Chiefs very soon.
“There is always a door that opens when one closes. Trying to look at the positives is very important,” Storey said. “This community is very vibrant and has potential to be a tourism community… we have been working on sustainability for a while to make sure we are sustainable with or without industry.”
Like O’Rourke, Storey said she only had about 45 minutes advanced notice before the news became public from a councilor who got a tip.
Worse, she said some employees of the mill had the day off and were not present for the official announcement – they found out they had lost their jobs either through text messages from coworkers or on social media.
“I talked to a manager at West Fraser, it was not a thing that they expected and it was not done on purpose… it was tough for every single person involved at the sawmill when this happened.”
With mills across the region curtailing and closing, Storey said she had heard rumours West Fraser was closing for years, but never credibly.
“We would have deep and thoughtful conversations with West Fraser. They would say ‘everything is looking good, everything is ok, it is not great right now but we think we can get through this,” she said. “I didn’t see it coming this month and hoped it wouldn’t happen.”
“Moving forward I am worried about the community and the projects we have,” she said, adding town budget discussions start tomorrow.
John Rustad, the Nechako Lakes MLA and BC Conservative Party Leader, said “this is devastating news. I know what this is going to mean for so many workers, families, and communities.”
“It makes me very angry. This did not need to happen. BC has become the highest cost producer of fibre,” he said. “When that happens, when you have government policies that restrict fibre and make it near impossible to get permits, how do companies operate?”
At a provincial level, Rustad said he wants to put pressure on the government to change forestry policies and “champion our forestry sector and support a healthy forest sector.”
“The real issue here is we have an NDP government that is concerned about its environmental vote in the lower mainland. They are not concerned about healthy communities and a healthy forest sector,” he said. “Nobody is standing up and fighting for what needs to be done on the ground to be able to support jobs and communities.”
Locally, he is calling for support for the impacted workers and their families.
“I hope forestry and the health of our resource sector will be a significant issue to be discussed during the election,” he added. “I am hoping we will see clear strategies about how our resource sector can be made stronger in this province and bring down that cost structure.”
The mill closure will reduce West Fraser’s Canadian lumber capacity by approximately 160 million board feet.
-filed by Will Peters-MyPGNow
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