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The End of an Era: Lumber Remanufacturing Program to Close after 30 Years
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For Immediate Release:
The President of Brink Forest Products Ltd., John A. Brink says that Canfor has confirmed their decision to shut down their custom remanufacturing program at his mill at the end of March. He says, “After lengthy attempts to convince both Canfor and the BC government of the merits of local remanufacturing, our reman plant will be shutting down indefinitely after 30 years. Canfor has already given us notice that they will stop sending low grade lumber to the mill effective last Friday and that we will have to process what’s now on the ground before the end of March”.
Brink is one of the last remanufacturers still operating in northern BC. “For 30 years we have remanufactured local low grade lumber in Prince George. It will feel like the end of an era when the plant closes,” says Brink. He adds, “Fortunately we have been diversifying our supply base over the past three years but with the degree of industry consolidation that has occurred, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find alternative suppliers”. Brink said that he intends to focus his business on fingerjointing in the two new fingerjoint plants that have recently come on stream.
About 100 employees will be affected. Brink has given assurances to those reman employees that they will be absorbed into the new fingerjoint operations. He said, “The real shame of the situation is that we had planned to create new jobs in the region rather than replace existing jobs. He added, “We are celebrating our 30th Anniversary this year and had hoped to commemorate this milestone through growth and expansion.”
John Brink has been a champion of the value-added forest sector since the inception of his company in 1975. However he feels that neither the primary industry nor the BC government has taken remanufacturing seriously, and that the government’s forest policy changes have been detrimental to remanufacturers. He adds that the majority of the uplift in the annual allowable cut due to Mountain Pine Beetle damage has so far been directed away from operators such as Brink, leaving little or nothing for remanners despite the fact that they specialize in the recovery of value-added products from low grades and damaged lumber.
He says, “Our only hope is that we may be able to gain access to timber so that we can replace the reman program with lumber from a sawmill of our own. It would be a perfect fit for our reman plant and we would create jobs right here in Prince George. The low grades would be remanufactured here and not sent to the US. That is what I call a winning solution for local communities”.
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For more information, contact John A. Brink at:
Office: 564-0412, Home: 562-1820, Cell: 960-9282, Fax: 564-0796
E-Mail: johnbrink@brink.bc.ca
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