Canfor curtails Polar Sawmill north of PG for six months

It’s another huge blow for the forestry sector in Prince George.

Canfor announced today (Tuesday) it will curtail operations for six months at its Polar Sawmill located in Bear Lake, north of Prince George, following an orderly wind-down.

“Unfortunately, BC is amongst the highest cost operating jurisdictions in the world. With persistent weak
market conditions and a shortage of cost-competitive fibre in the region, we simply don’t have enough
economic fibre to support both of our Prince George-area mills through this winter. As a result, we are
making the difficult decision to curtail operations at Polar to ensure continued operations at our other
facilities in the region,” said Stephen Mackie, Executive Vice President, North American Operations.

“We know this will have significant impacts on our Polar employees, their families, our suppliers and the
local community, who all rely on a healthy forest industry. We regret having to take this action and are
committed to supporting our employees and their families during this difficult time. We will also continue to
encourage government to work with industry, Indigenous partners and communities to address the
challenges and uncertainty the industry is facing in accessing fibre in BC – fibre that supports thousands
of manufacturing jobs and creates the low-carbon products the world wants.”

The curtailment will remove approximately 140 million board feet of production.