“It’s a hard time for our community,”
That’s from Saik’uz First Nation Chief Priscilla Mueller after Sinclar Forest Products announced a permanent production curtailment at its Nechako Lumber facility in Vanderhoof.
It will go from two shifts to one as of October 30th. Roughly 60 jobs are expected to be impacted.
Mueller told MyPGNow.com this latest move compounds what has already been an unforgiving year in the forestry sector.
“We do have an agreement with Sinclar. We do have a good working relationship with them and we have around 22 members that are working at the mill right now – I am not too sure how that will impact our workers but I am sure will impact both communities (Saik’uz and Vanderhoof).”
Mueller cites decades of unsustainable logging is coming back to bite us, especially as pertains to the Mountain Pine Beetle outbreak, which lasted nearly two decades and took a large bite out of the sector.
“We wanted to get rid of the bogwood. It started out at seven million cubic meters to twelve and a half cubic meters and they increased its because of the bogwood – that lasted only four or five years and they never did bring those numbers back down again and started logging greenwood.”
“Sooner or later it is going to catch up to us and we are here right now. We are seeing the results of unsustainable logging over many, many years, and our First Nations are working with the government to try and see how can we log in a sustainable way.”
According to the provincial government, the worst year of observed red-attack, at a provincial scale, was 2005 with approximately 140 million cubic meters attacked by the Mountain Pine Beetle.
In addition, 54% of B.C.’s merchantable pine volume has likely been killed – this includes one million cubic meters observed as a red-attack in the summer of 2015.
2023 has not been kind to the forestry sector in the north.
In January, Canfor closed its pulp line at the PG Pulp and Paper Mill as well permanently shutting down its location Chetwynd.
During this time, the company also announced a lengthy shutdown at its Houston mill as it weighs its options on a redevelopment project for the area.
Just north of 500 employees were impacted by the Chetwynd and Houston announcements.
Last week, Canfor issued an update on its Houston re-development stating the planning process for a large-scale renovation and upgrade has been completed but requires a little more time to seek assurances in relation to the availability of economic fibre required to support the investment and successful operation of the facility.