In a town that’s home to just 4,500 people, Vanderhoof woke up Thursday knowing 260 residents of the area are about to lose their jobs.
Canadian Forest Products plans to close Plateau Sawmills, Vanderhoof’s largest single employer, due to a lack of economical fibre and financial losses brought on by weak lumber markets and increased tariffs on wood products exported to the U.S.
Canfor also announced the permanent closure of its sawmill in Fort St. John, which will cost that city 240 jobs.
When the closures take effect later this year that will remove 670 million board feet of annual production capacity from Canfor's BC operations.
“We found out (Wednesday) right after the employees were notified, obviously it was a very tough day - 260 direct jobs, and then you have contractors on top of that,” said Vanderhoof Mayor Kevin Moutray. “The trickle-down is huge.
“Our hearts really go out to those employees and contractors and we will be working hard in the coming days weeks and months to make sure that we help them transition into other employment.
“Vanderhoof is a resilient entrepreneurial community and people will find ways to make things work and make things go forward. We are in tough times but we will get through this.”
Moutray said the town’s position as a farming community will help some of those workers find jobs in agriculture and he also mentioned Artemis Gold’s Blackwater Mine south of Vanderhoof, which will be coming into production this fall and will need a workforce to operate it.
Businesses in the town, 99 kilometres west of Prince George, are already feeling the pinch from the closure of West Fraser’s Fraser Lake Sawmill earlier in the spring. Last October 30, Sinclar Forest Products curtailed its Nechako Lumber sawmill and planer production from two shifts to just one.
The Plateau mill has existed in Vanderhoof since 1969, originally set up on the north side of the Nechako River. It was purchased in 1973 by the provincial NDP government.
“Somebody told me the other day it’s had 17 owners,” said Moutray.
Canfor upgraded its Plateau and Houston Sawmills significantly to be able to handle huge volumes of beetle-killed wood when the mountain pine beetle infestation devastated Interior forests from 1999-2015. Plateau was the largest production sawmill in the world at the time but its footprint was significantly reduced once the timber supply diminished and it was cut to one shift, while Houston was shuttered.
“It’s a really tough time in the forest sector right now and we’re in for a tough couple of years,” said Moutray. “But I really believe the economy for Vanderhoof is going to be strong moving forward. It’s a time when we really need to think about how we support each other, support local, and we will get there moving forward and make sure we come out thriving at the other end.”
Moutray says he understands why Canfor made its decision, saying it’s a combination of factors that have made its sawmill operations in the area too expensive to maintain.
“It’s a cumulative effect and forest policy definitely has some part in it, but we were heading this way no matter what government was in,” said Moutray.
“The issue is getting access to economic fibre and the tariffs with the U.S. Canada has won in court so many times but the tariffs just keep on (getting in the way) and until that’s somehow figured out and there is a free market with U.S. that’s going to be a tough sell.”
