Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Two Years Later, Upper Fraser Closure Continues to Send Ripples

By 250 News

The sign on the silent mill says it all. The economic repercussions of Canfor's decision to shutter its sawmill still reverberate through the small communities in the area. 

Susan Faulkner, part owner of the Upper Fraser store, says the move by the corporate giant has all but closed her business. Faulkner, who owns and runs the small convenience store with her husband Larry, says the fact they have the post ofice business really helped them. According to Faulkner, Canfor treated the community "terribly, they didn't even say goodbye." She says other places in the region have been hit harder with small communities like Macgregor just disappearing. Faulkner added that a month ago, the company sign that read "Our Roots are in This Community" was taken down. The sign had been put up outside the mill office once Canfor had bought the operation in 1999 from Northwood.
                                                                                                                
In January of 1997, the Upper Fraser mill suffered a major fire but was running again by September of that year and was rebuilt to continue as a large log mill. According to Mark Fieldinger, Canfor General Manager, Prince George Division, the mill was closed in the summer of 2003 mainly because the fibre supply  was having to be moved from too far away. Large logs, some coming from a distance of 200 kilometers, were being trucked to the mill. Fieldinger stated that it made little sense to move this wood past mills that could cut the logs themselves. 

The focus of Canfor operations, as well as other lumber companies in the central interior, is to the west of Prince George now, as they move to harvest the massive amount of timber killed by the devastating mountain pine beetle infestation. According to Charlie Meints of Canfor, in 1997, the pine beetle had not become a significant problem when the Upper Fraser sawmill was rebuilt. 

In 1992, the beetle had emerged as a small infestation in Tweedsmuir Park. Canfor will not be reopening the mill because the property has been sold and the new owner is Northwest Specialty Lumber. According to David Fehr of Northwest, there are no plans to reopen the mill, in fact, it is to be taken down and disassembled. Northwest has also purchased the site that was formerly Prince George Wood Preserving, as well as Canfor's Valemont saw mill operation. The Valemont operation was sold for $3 million.
 
Canfor has retained its cutting rights in the area that normally supplied the Upper Fraser mill, however, because harvesting the beetle infested wood is a priority, Meints beleives the amount of wood Canfor is required to cut according to its obligations in the region has been reduced. There is comparitively little pine in the are as the wetter climate and richer soil mainly produce spruce and balsam, along with a smaller amount of hemlock and cedar. 

Along the lightly traveled road from Upper Fraser, through the older, once vibrant copmmunities of Aleza Lake, Newlands, and Giscome, there is little activity to see, just some farming, the occaisional "for sale" sign and decaying buildings. Just west of Giscome, the village of WIllow RIver has also felt the effect of Canfor's decision. 

Darlene Dunphy, co-owner with her husband Kevin, of the Willow River General Store, says the mill closure has hurt the growth of their business. along with the community. She says lots of people sold their homes and moved and some people lost their homes. She does give credit to Canfor for donating the building that now houses the WIllow River Fire Department. 
           
Alone in his WIllow River service station, Yogi Sharma hopes for better times. He describes the mill closure as coming without warning and its effects on his business as terrible, saying there is very little traffic on the road compared to what it was. Once the pine harvest begins to wind down in the west however, at the very least, logging operations will undoubtedly again increase in the area. In his situation though, it will probably be an unfortunate case of too little too late.
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