Maybe some of the laid off workers can pick up temporary work as a Service Canada Employee.

The upside of this situation if there is one, is the fact that there are a lot of jobs available in other Citys ie; Pr George, Kamloops, Grande Prairie, Dawson Creek, Ft St John, Ft Mcmurray, Vancouver, to name a few.

Had this closure take place in the early eighties I dont know what these people would have done. Because of the availability of jobs in other areas these people will at least get some breathing room as they decide what they can do.

While I agree with the analysis that it could be worse, given that we are more or less in an economy which works in favour of the worker, I think that it is ashame that one is uprooted from one's community of choice, and especially of birth, due to the lack of opportunity to continue to have access to gainful employment.

It used to be that the community was dependent on each other for survival. Just look at the article on Vanderhoof pulling through when assistance was needed by a few in the community.

When a company moves in and is immediately a major player by drawing people to the community merely by it being there, it becomes part of that community and ought to ensure the survial of not only the company but also the community it has caused to grow in an apparent unsustainable fashion.

In the long run, Mackenzie may shake its dependancy on a single industry. At the moment it looks like there is a lot of work needed to be done in order to achieve that.

On the assumption forestry will pick up again, they really need to work seriously on diversifying the economy, otherwise it will continue to ride the waves of the industry they are so dependent on.

Its not only Mackenzie. There are other towns that are reliant on their sawmills to keep them going. Dont forget the problems that Mcbride has. 100 Mile, Williams Lake, Quesnel, Vanderhoof, Burns Lake, Houston, Terrace, are all forest dependent and could be impacted at anytime.

Terrace has just had a big mill close recently. Kitimat faces a loss of over 700 jobs if the Alcan upgrading goes through.

It would be nice to beleive that all these towns could diversify and come up with other ways to exist, such as value added etc; however that is highly unlikely.

In any event if they are going to diversify they better get started now, and not wait until they get a mill closure.

Cache Creek was totally impacted when the Coquahalla was put through and the only thing that they could come up with to continue to generate employment was to take garbage from Vancouver. Garbage is being trucked in on a daily basis, and the Garbage trucks take back woodchips for the pulp mills on the coast. This is a unique situation and has created some work, however the end result is a huge garbage dump in your back yard. I understand the next huge dump site will be Clinton.

Canfor's CEO Jim Shephard was interviewed by the Vancouver Sun yesterday. That interview was published in today's issue of the Vancouver Sun.

The following two paragraphs are taken from that interview.

"Veteran business leader Jim Shepard, who took over the reins of Canfor only seven weeks ago, said in an interview that the company is facing a $200-million loss in 2007, largely because he believes banks will foreclose on one million American homes this year."

"This is the worst I have ever seen," he said of Canfor's financial situation.

If anyone is interested in reading the entire article, my next paragraph has the link to it. (Please be advised the article is two pages long, and you have to click on "next" at the bottom of page one to get to page two of the article).

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/business/story.html?id=d44647da-5f69-4634-8c68-3ffd30c1bfbf

Jim Shepard “believes banks will foreclose on one million American homes this year."

That is not new speculation. That has been around for many months. He is not the only one who believes it.

He thinks about commodities. I wonder whether he thinks about the people who occupy the houses? While some of the houses may be sitting with builders who have overbuilt, the majority are occupied. Those people need to be housed somewhere. Some may be younger and have parents who can take them in to a larger house, some may be older who can move back into the house they may have given or sold to their children. Others will simply have to rent or buy smaller or in a different part of the country where housing is still relatively affordable and jobs are available. The scenarios are many.

So, we could have empty houses in a whole range of price ranges, being used as musical chairs … everyone moving down a notch or two with high end houses remaining and a growing demand at the bottom end for rentals or houses in cheaper parts of the Country.

There will most certainly be a blip, but once things settle down and regain an equilibrium, those who have been in owner occupied houses and have been displaced will again be seeking to buy, at which time the number of sawmills in Canada will be reduced, the feedstock of pine in the west will have begun to decline more seriously and the prices for lumber will rise high enough to counter a high Canadian dollar. The only part of the equation which may need some work on it is a readily available qualified workforce.

So, a $200 million loss. Stay in the business, downsize a touch for what you think is going to be the upswing capacity requirement and look at the rest of the red ink on the books as an investment into expected gains over the next 5 year period.

How much does this fellow get for being the CEO?