Mackenzie Discussions Continue Next Week

Saturday, June 02, 2007 04:00 AM

Talks continue between Prince George North MLA Pat Bell and top level executives of Canfor on the matter of the planned indefinite closure of the Mackenzie sawmill.

Bell met with company executives Friday and says they will continue discussions. He will be in Mackenzie on Monday to meet with company and local officials.

Canfor lost nearly $43 million in the first quarter of this year. The company blames the high dollar, record low prices for lumber, an oversupply of lumber on the market, and a slump in the U.S. housing market. There is also the matter of the new tax at the border which is non- refundable.

In an effort to stop the bleeding, Canfor announced it would shut down its Mackenzie sawmill “indefinitely”. The closure will throw 450 out of work. When you factor in their families, that means 1500 people will be directly impacted, that amounts to one third of Mackenzie’s population.

Earlier this week, officials from Mackenzie, the Provincial Government, Northern Health, School District 57 and the Regional District huddled at UNBC.

School District 57 has since issued a media release saying that even though the announcement of the mill closure has caused “a great deal of uncertainty and anxiety, Assistant Superintendent Rob Little assures the community that the school district’s plan is to stay the course.”

Little says Mackenzie residents need not worry that programs will be cut “Mackenzie school principals are planning to provide the same programs we’ve always provided and School District 57 remains committed to providing quality educational experiences for all our students.”

According to Little, several resource industry reps are already looking for other commercial and industrial enterprises to relocate to Mackenzie where they can draw from an existing pool of skilled labour.

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Posted on Saturday, June 02, 2007 04:00 AM in News by 250 News

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Comments

Posted by: lunarguy on June 2 2007 7:25 AM

So where is our Federal MP on this issue ? If some company in Quebec announced it was laying off 450 people by now there would have been money thrown at the project, probably some re-training plans, etc. It seems you have to be in Eastern Canada or have a family name like Bombardier to get lots of Canadian Tax Payer dollars for your company to keep jobs around.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on June 2 2007 9:02 AM

You would have to wonder about Canfor and their motives if somebody like Pat Bell can in fact persuade them to change their mind in regards to the shutdown.
(as much as I would like to see that happen)
This is NOT Bell's area of expertise, and I am at a loss as to why the B.C. government would send him to do the job?
And,if Canfor changed their minds and stayed running,what does that say to all the other mills who are in trouble?
It may also says that Canfor's motives were probably purely political and perhaps just a ploy to try and generate something for themselves.
If the political powers in this country or province were serious, as the above writer mentioned,they would have a federal MP on the job instead of a political opportunist looking for brownie points.
At the very least someone who actually understands what is happening to the forest industry in B.C.!
I really don't think the Campbell government is all that worried or concerned!
Very disappointing!

Posted by: charles on June 2 2007 9:46 AM

There is no question Canfor is in very serious times, as evidenced by the fact that they lost almost $43 million in the first 3 months of this year. As BCTV News commented a few days ago, B.C.'s sawmills and pulp & paper mills are facing a perfect storm. (All of the issues in this perfect storm have been well discussed on this web site recently.)

I would have to agree with Andyfreeze when he recently posted (re: changes in the forest industry)

"The current forestry issues in this province are NOT all part of a cyclic pattern this time around. This is a new ball game."

My own guess is the odds of the Mackenzie sawmill reopening is virtually zero. It wouldn't at all surprise me to see many more sawmills in this area close down in the very future, and be replaced by one massive ultra modern supermill.

I think what Pat Bell should be doing is to ask Canfor to lay their cards on the table as soon as possible with regards to their plans for the forest industry in this area, so that anyone involved in any possible job losses can get on with their lives and not cling to a false hope that their job may return in the future.

Many towns and cities back east have suffered massive job losses as a result of this "change" in the forest industry.

I think this is a time individuals, busineses, and governments, in this area should really be carefull about how they spend their money, because our local economy is going to be taking a major hit as a result of a loss of a lot of forest industry jobs.

I think the building "boom" which is currently going on in Prince George, is soon going to be replaced by a building "bust"

Posted by: Andyfreeze on June 2 2007 10:35 AM

I couldn't agree more charles!
I watched what happened to Prince Rupert
when the pulp mill shut down and it wasn't pretty.
People hung on and continued to hang on in hopes that the mill would restart at some point.
After many false starts and lies,they were still waiting after a number of years and scams.
More information in the form of the truth would have better enabled people to adjust and get on with their lives.
And the government,locally and provincially, were as much to blame for it as anyone.
Canfor has an obligation to the people of MacKenzie and B.C.to fill them in on the long term plan for that mill.
And by the same token,the B.C. Government has an obligation to assist displaced workers in anyway they can.
I also recall the big bust in the housing industry in Nanaimo in the very early to mid 90's.
Builders were going broke and the developers were still building!
There was rows of new houses sitting empty and yet they still were not listening!
It will likely be worse this time around all over B.C.

Posted by: camoose on June 2 2007 3:55 PM

Wow, all it takes is a 28% wage increase and a gold pension plan for Pat Bell to get into the Canfor/Mckenzie mill closure situation. Good job his Wendys franchise isn't in McKenzie. I would imagine his consultations with Canfor are scripted and cleared with Gordo beforehand.

Posted by: Chadermando on June 2 2007 4:09 PM

I can't help but think Canfor took the cream of their tenure in the Mackenzie area with all the flat land trees easy to harvest, and now they want to focus on other areas with easy low cost harvesting before considering going back to the Mackenzie area. I don't think it has anything to do with the efficiency of the mill and the mill workers.

IMO it shows irresponsibility of our provincial government to allow the harvesting of low cost areas, and leaving the high cost harvesting for future generations in a short sighted land use planning. If a company is to have a tenure, than maybe they should be forced to take a more balanced approach to how they harvest with more emphasis on the selective slope harvesting mandated as part of their tenure to log the flat areas.

We have serious trouble on the horizon with the rush to log all the low cost beetle wood on the flat lands. This is a situation that will ensure the next 30-40 years have nothing left but the higher cost wood on the steep slopes. The government should be doing more to focus the forest companies on a more sustainable harvesting practice. The hedge fund 3rd Avenue is not going to look out for our future we can be sure, so the onus falls on government to ensure we are not raped for the easy profits and then left with a huge future liability in our future industrial competitiveness as a province, city, or region.

IMO the industry should be 100% open log market (local milling requirements) with the provincial government deciding who cuts what and where ensuring a more selective and sustainable harvest that ensures a viable industry for future generations.

Under the BC liberals this will never happen as they are bought and paid for by companies like Canfor who pay their election campaigns and manipulate the public for their own ends.

Posted by: lmorg on June 2 2007 5:18 PM

\does anyone know if any impact this will have on the pg area? \Will the CN container facility in prince george offset any downturn in the pg economy as a result of the collapse of the forest industry?

Posted by: Palopu on June 2 2007 10:45 PM

Contrary to what some people beleive the CN Container Terminal will actually reduce jobs in the Prince George Area. These jobs will mainly be trucking jobs to Vancouver, and Switching and Train Service Jobs in the Greater Prince George area.

As an example if at present you are loading 7000 truck loads to Vancouver with lumber to load in containers you would need at least 20 Trucks per day ex Prince George.

Once the Container Terminal is up and running you will only need 8 or 10 employees driving tractor trailers and delivering Containers to the local Mills for loading and return to the Container yard. The same thing applies to pulp and papers presently trucked to Vancouver.

What this means is less trucks to Vancouver, less Trains to Vancouver, and less switching of rail cars to mills in the Greater Prince George area. This of course means less jobs, less repairs to trucks, less diesel sales, tire sales, new truck sales, etc; Huge impact on the local economy.

Do you really beleive that the CN would transfer all its business that it presently handles to Vancouver to Prince Rupert without making some money out of it. The increased revenue will be from Containers loaded Prince Rupert to the Greater Chicago area., and further revenue will be generated by decreasing costs of handling this product in Prince George,IE: Containers to Prince Rupert.

Some of this will come to light as the operation gets up and running, however you can rest assured there will be no increase in jobs.

Canfor is now controlled by Jimmy Pattison, and some old codger in the USA, between them they have approx 53% of the company, and it seems that the game plan is major downsizing, cost reductions, and of course stock value enhancement. The days of blaming **Canfor** are over. The real culpirts are the 2 majority stockholders.

Posted by: Andyfreeze on June 3 2007 9:33 AM

It's interesting that Jimmy Pattison is made out as something of a big hero here in B.C.
Especially by the government.
When it comes right down to it,he is actually a ruthless business man who could care less about jobs when it comes down to money.
He throws a bit of charity money around from time to time and comes across like he actually cares.
What he really cares about is MONEY.Not people.
Anytime Jimmy Pattison is involved in anything I get nervous!
I used to be a Canfor shareholder for years, but I got the hell out of it when he started scooping up shares!
And I'm very glad i did.

Posted by: lmorg on June 3 2007 2:01 PM

I read an interesting article in the vancouver sun today about turning all the inefficient mills in the interior into generating plants for an ethanol based fuel by processing all the beetle kill lumber. They are doing this now in labs at the major uiversities down here. I'm surprized that UNBC hadn't had something like this in the works, or maybe they have been working on the task and nothing has developed?? Could this be something that could save communities like mackenzie or pg ??