The impact of the pending Canfor sawmill closures in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John announced Wednesday that will put 500 mill workers out of work is just starting to be felt and the trickle-down effect on the economy in those communities will no doubt worsen once those permanent closures happen.
Brenda Bailey, BC’s minister of jobs, economic development and innovation, says there’s nothing that will soften the blow for the affected workers as they come to terms with the shock of losing their jobs but the province is doing what it can to set up retraining programs and will help them find work.
“It’s horrific news,” Bailey said. ”I can tell you I grew up in a forestry family, my dad was in the logging industry in Nanaimo and I remember what it’s like when there’s a mill closure.
“It’s hard on the community and hard on the workers and hard on everyone who relies on those jobs. The peripheral effects are so significant. I know this decision by Canfor is a really hard one to hear. A big factor is the increase from the States in terms of softwood lumber and the tariff increase last month was a part of this decision and that’s a really tough problem.
“I know the federal government is working on it with the U.S. and it’s not something that has gone our way historically and there’s a lot of work to do here. Canfor has made these decisions not only in British Columbia but also in some of their mills down in the States as well. The price of yellow pine (lumber) is literally half the price it was last year.”
Bailey said the steelworkers union is pressuring the government to force Canfor to give up its tenure rights in the affected areas where the company is pulling back its forestry operations and its investment in logging communities.
Canfor has indicated it would be willing to sell its tenure rights to harvest areas that are tied to those mills, and the union and Indigenous leaders are pushing back on that, saying they do not have the right to withhold timber claims on public lands.
“Their hope is this leads to tenure being available,” said Bailey. “Those are questions that are being asked now.”
Bailey said whenever there is a mill curtailment or closure the province sets up a community table staffed by economic development experts to help mill workers and tradespeople about to lose their jobs find out about other job opportunities and get connected to retraining programs. She said that is already happening in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John.
“We’ve invested a huge amount of money into Skills BC and a program that allows people to retrain in a number of different categories,” said Bailey. “There’s 450 microcredentials, small 18-week programs, that can take somebody’s skill set, for example, if you’re working in the forest industry and want to get into mass timber, you can do that retraining in a short amount of time – 12-18 weeks and there’s funding available. These trainings cost about $3,500-4,000 and there’s grants available for $3,500.”
Bailey said mining operations are coming on stream that will offer some employment opportunities for laid-off mill workers.
“We do expect to see significant growth in mining for the next number of years,” she said. “The Cariboo Blackwater Mine is 87 per cent complete and they’re going to pour gold this year.
“There are some promising indicators, particularly in the mining sector. We’re really blessed in British Columbia, when you identify what they call critical minerals that are necessary for decarbonization happening all over the world, a good chunk of them are in BC. That means there’s people looking to invest in these particular mining opportunities, and a lot of that would be in (the northern BC) region.”
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