|
Fort St. James mill still hasn’t reopened
• Back to News
GORDON HOEKSTRA Citizen staff
Pope & Talbot failed to reopen its Fort St. James sawmill as promised earlier this month, a blow to the forest-based community which already has another sawmill indefinitely idled.
U.S.-based Pope & Talbot, which is under bankruptcy protection in Canada, had announced it expected to restart the sawmill on Nov. 5 following a three-week shutdown.
However, the mill has remained closed (it's now in its fifth week) and company spokesman Mark Rossolo could not say Wednesday when or whether the mill would reopen.
Ross Dirnback, who owns a truck shop in Fort St. James that supplies the logging community, said the continued closure of the Pope & Talbot mill is a blow to the community, particularly since Stuart Lake Lumber, a smaller mill, has been closed indefinitely since the summer.
The two closures have impacted hundreds of forest sector workers.
Another of the community's sawmills, Apollo Forest Products, recently moved to a four-day work week indefinitely. It's unclear if there has been any impact to Tl'oh Forest Products, a secondary lumber manufacturer in the community of about 5,000, 160 kilometres northwest of Prince George.
Lumber producers in the Northern Interior, like others in Canada, have been reacting to poor lumber prices, a high Canadian dollar, a 15-per-cent export tax on softwood shipments to the U.S. and operational challenges in milling pine-beetle-killed timber.
Some industry representatives and observers have called the situation the worst they have ever seen.
Financially-troubled Pope & Talbot's move to seek bankruptcy protection has exacerbated worries for communities in which it operates.
"This town is going to die," said Dirnback, who is also not happy to see logging trucks passing through town loaded with logs headed to Vanderhoof, Prince George and other locations.
Rossolo, who is acting as Pope & Talbot's spokesman in Portland, Ore., said the company had planned to reopen the Fort St. James sawmill but was unable to after a pair of logging contractors slapped a lien on the timber in the sawmill's yard. Once the lien was in place, the company could not touch the logs, said Rossolo. A lien is a legal claim against an asset -- in this case, the logs -- used to secure a debt payment.
Sources who are familiar with the situation in Fort St. James told The Citizen that the two logging contractors -- the KDL Group and Newlands Enterprises -- are owed a lot of money by Pope & Talbot. The lien was sought in order to provide a measure of protection to the logging contractors, said the sources.
Rossolo said any ability to work out an arrangement with the logging contractors is tied to the bankruptcy proceedings under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act of Canada, which includes deliberations on credit arrangements that would allow Pope & Talbot to continue operating.
"Not having the money to pay for these liens is just one issue of that," said Rossolo.
The toll from the negative forces buffeting the forest sector have started to mount in the Northern Interior.
Other companies that have taken or are taking shutdowns in the region include Canfor, Hampton Affiliates, Tolko and Sinclar Enterprises. West Fraser's only announced closure has been in Terrace.
Brink Forest Products in Prince George has also been negatively impacted.
The company -- which produces finger-jointed lumber from trim ends and low-grade lumber -- had to shut down its plant in Houston last week after it lost its supply agreement, which put about 75 workers off the job.
Another 55 workers are idled in Prince George as the company has dropped to two lines from three. John Brink, who has headed the company for more than four decades, said the combination of factors hurting the industry is the worst he's ever seen.
NDP forestry critic Bob Simpson is calling on the B.C. government to convene an emergency summit that brings together business, forestry experts, labour and community interests.
"Every forestry community in B.C. is facing a disaster," said Simpson, a former forest firm executive who lives in Quesnel.
"Mills are closing, workers are losing their jobs, and entire communities are threatened. What will it take to get action from this government?" he said.
|
