This would be no different from the Mackenzie situation. If you have the chance to get retraining and further your education etc....do so!! Do not wait around and make use of all the services provided by EI and CDT (Provincial $5000.00) tuition aid.
I am working on my diploma and not going back to the sawmills if I can help it.

At PG Saw they have almost the whole log yard along the river full of lumber... normally that would all be shipped out? Ditto for Plateau if you drive by, its whole massive lumber yard is almost right full. IMO we will see some more downtime at the mills this summer once the current agreement expires and brinkmanship takes place for the new agreement. All the chip contracts expire at the end of the month as well, with the newly agreed contracts supposed to take effect at the end of the month. Time will tell....

With the unprecedented amount of challenges and uncertainty the forest industry is facing, I am surprised home prices in the Prince George area have held up as well as they have.

"With the unprecedented amount of challenges and uncertainty the forest industry is facing, I am surprised home prices in the Prince George area have held up as well as they have"

In some ways I am and in others I am not. I think the prices in PG were always a little bit behind where they should have been and now I think they are settling in to a more appropriate range. I think they were inflated for a while there, but they have dropped a bit since then and I think we're going to see a higher "normal" value that what we were historically used to. We'll still have those normal ups and downs, but I think the average range in those prices will still be a bit higher due to the previous undervaluations. And no I'm not a realtor, LOL.

Compared to previous slumps (as a percentage of our population) I also think that we now have more people in town who are not directly employed in the forestry industry or even impacted by what happens in that industry. I know it comes across as blasphemy to say something like that in this town, but it has truth to it. This diversification can help stablilize home prices, or at least help make the drops more tapered and less of a sheer plummet when they do occur.

It's tough to predict the future but for the time being at least, we seem to be in much better shape that what many were predicitng. Hopefully that trend continues. Time will tell.

Oh and I also wanted to give a big thumbs up to borneo60 for working on their diploma. Good on you!

I think what borneo60 is doing is quite commendable, too. "Education", in the broadest sense, is never really wasted. Even if nowadays it doesn't always open the doors to 'economic' advancement in the immediate ways it's often hoped for.

It is always nice to see people productively using 'time' when they are not employed to better advantage themselves for the future. Whether through the pursuit of more formal education, or in other ways.

Sadly our society and governments seldom seem to realize that 'time' is NOT 'money'. For the latter is always replaceable, the former, once past, is gone forever. And, when you think about it, we all really have too little of it to waste.

Borneo60 has the right attitude. Others need to follow his example if at all possible. Do not rely on the system to provide you with adequate help. Use whatever personal connections and resources you have. This situation will only get worse and our system is not even close to managing our current dilemma and what is coming down the pike. During these risky times, it is neccessary to take even more risks. Sadly, our world is rapidly changing and the rules and our realities are no longer the same. This affects all of us. I'm in transition too.

Once again the companies get a break they idle mills to get away from paying severance. This Govt just sits on their hands and do nothing for the forest workers of this province. They just give money from the Feds.They should step up to the plate and provide money for these workers and act as a govt that cares about people of this province. The Govt should step in and make these companies like Abitibi Bowater pay severance when they go into recievership. It not like the Govt knew Abitibi would ever open again.

You seem to think that all these "Companies" actually always "have" the money to pay severance from, just the facts.

While there is certainly a legal liability to pay employees severance in the event of a permanent closure, a lot of companies close mills only after they have already lost money for a protracted period of time due to market conditions largely beyond their control.

And only then in the hopes that they'll be able to re-open them again as soon as possible when there is sufficient market for their product that'll cover the costs of its making.

Companies don't build mills to shut them down ~ they don't 'make' anything themselves when they're not operating ~ they build them to run. But if you can't sell your product at more than it costs to make it, as is the situation now, well....?

Loading them up with severance payments every time there's a shutdown won't do anything towards restoring those plants to financial viability.

It'll move them further away from it, for there's one more largely unknown cost that'll have to be factored at its largest anticipated amount into the price of their products. A 'price' that's already too low relative to presently existing costs for them to remain open.

In fact, since we often seem to have a "one size fits all" mentality, many operations now in existence likely won't be, if such a further imposition were made on them. It simply won't pay to operate them with one more uncertain cost of this nature added to their already growing costs. That'll just lead to further 'rationalization' and more concentration of what is already too concentrated 'ownership'.

"Meantime, contract talks are underway at Canfor, West Fraser and Conifer. The current agreement will end at the end of June, there has been no indication of what the Union will be asking for. "
this is from the 250 news story above, but it's not a matter of what the union is asking for - it's a matter of what the company is asking for. How much roll-back they want as compared to what the unions can hold on to. How many years back in time are we going? The companies hold all the aces this time.

I should add that I had over 20 years seniority at the Mackenzie sawmills (CanFor). I maybe recalled back to work if the second shift starts. If I don't report back, I shall be terminated by the company.

The choice is pretty clear in my mind: finish my education rather than facing temporary work than to lose on time to further my career and education.