Delay of Reopening Mackenzie Pulp Mill Disappointing to Many

Saturday, October 04, 2008 07:27 AM

Prince George, B.C.- Minister of Forests and Range, Pat Bell says word the re-opening of the former Pope and Talbot mill in Mackenzie has been delayed is, in his words, “very disappointing.”

Minister Bell says he will be talking with the new owner, Dan White of Worthington Properties soon to get more details.

“They had the fibre, and certainly this is a set back” says Bell. The Minister adds he is willing to work with the new owners to try and get the mill back up and running.

According to CEP Union Local 1092 President, Carl Bernasky, there are about 32 people who were brought back to get things rolling. “We were supposed to have the boiler up October 1^st and start the warm up of the effluent system so that by mid November the plant could have some pulp. The owners have pushed that off for 60 days, possibly longer.” That would push the plant into the cold of winter, and Bernasky worries what that cold might do to the mill.

Bernasky says the new time frame puts the unemployed workers into another two months of employment insurance and he doesn’t want to give them false hopes “I’m telling them, if they have a job offer somewhere else, to take it. I just can’t say they should stay here and make $390 bucks a week on pogey when they could be making really good money in camp or in the patch.”

According to Bernasky, there is another issue. He says the owners had accepted CEP Local 1092 as the union of record, but now, the local’s legal team advises Worthington Properties is challenging that.

It’s the uncertainty that is really stressing the workers says Bernasky “You can see it in their faces, there’s frustration, there’s anger. I know that if some of these people go, they may not come back, and the mill owners will lose the experience of those who really know this plant.”

Worthington Properties says it decided to delay the start up of the mill because of the economic meltdown in the U.S.

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Posted on Saturday, October 04, 2008 07:27 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: Andyfreeze on October 4 2008 7:46 AM

Disappointing news!
But the owner/s of this mill are dealing with economics and let's face it,right now it's a bloody mess!
Hopefully,the situation will resolve itself very soon,but it still comes down to "money"!
I also find myself somewhat skeptical of anything the workers and the community are being told in general.
It would not be the first time they have been lied to!
Fingers and toes crossed, and hang in there boys and girls!
Better days are coming!

Posted by: Eagleone on October 4 2008 9:49 AM

Its not economics. The Canfor Pulp Trust is making record profits. I think you could blame the shut down on other factors in the parent company combined with the impact of the rail car shortage that killed their revenue stream after the sale of BC Rail. Now clearly their problem is access to wood chips like I had said last week they will not start without them. I can't see how Pat was telling the world producers in the PG region were having a hard time selling their chips.

Northwood is currently getting in a dozen or more b-train loads a day coming in from the Mackenzie stockpile and Canfor plans to chip the remainder of their whole logs up in Mackenzie in the next couple of months and send that down to Northwood as well. So now not only do Worthington Properties need to find a wood chip supply they will also have to ship it to Mackenzie once they do locate that supply. Unless they get their own tenure and set up a whole log chipping plant they will not be operational in the next few years IMO. The irony in this is that the Northwood union people are the most spoiled and lazy that you can find almost anywhere and they are the benefactors of this stockpile removal taking place.

Posted by: Mercenary on October 4 2008 10:03 AM

There is a whole log chipping outfit already located in Mackenzie. There is a whole lot behind the scenes that we are not privy to.

Perhaps this Worthington wasn't the savior that Mackenzie was looking for. I do hope it doesn't turn out like the Port Alice mess of a few years back.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on October 4 2008 10:18 AM

"There is a whole lot behind the scenes that we are not privy too."
Bang on Mercenary!

Posted by: He speaks on October 4 2008 12:01 PM

I remember going to Port Alice in the mid 90's. They were running 60 inch diameter fir logs through the chipper. Talk about extravagance.

Posted by: swingline on October 4 2008 12:37 PM

Yes, disheartening news, though not entirely unsurprising. Fingers crossed for the residents of Mackenzie, hopefully things start to turn around soon.

Posted by: charles on October 4 2008 1:58 PM

I think there are more job losses coming to B.C.'s forest industry as a consequence of the bursting of our historic and worldwide debt/credit bubble.

In the last couple of months the shares of Canfor's Prince George pulp mills have taken a major hit. It seems to me the shareholders in this company are expecting much lower earnings from this company in the not too distant future.

The following link is a one year stock price chart for this company, (The shares closed at $6.20 on Friday)

http://cxa.marketwatch.com/tsx/en/market/quote.aspx?symbol=cfx.un&x=3&y=11

Also the lumber price has taken a fairly dramatic drop in the last couple of months.

The following link will take you to a chart of recent lumber prices:

http://futures.tradingcharts.com/chart/LU/B8

Posted by: HD on October 4 2008 3:10 PM

Make sure to vote NDP and everything will be just fine!

Posted by: govsux on October 4 2008 3:25 PM

Despite low stock prices for CPLP, the units are paying out 12 cents/unit. So, at this low price the income is decent. The mills in PG have a cheap and stable(for now) fibre supply, and are some of the lowest cost producers in the world. The falling canuck buck is helping profits and four bio-energy proposals have been submitted to BC Hyro. Almost all stocks are in the toilet right now and may be for some time.
If pulp prices slide much more, many producers will shut down. CPLP has lost some very big customers, hopefully they find new ones.
Everything is iffy right now, don't believe Harper parroting Bush's "the fundamentals of our economy blah, blah, blah". $20 billion in bailout money to canadian banks already. Tough times are coming!

Posted by: leoleo on October 6 2008 7:42 AM

"CPLP has lost some very big customers, hopefully they find new ones."

Really....name 1 .