'It just guts a small community': Forestry job cuts take a personal toll

It's been a tough week for small forestry communities in B.C.

On Wednesday, Canfor said it would be shutting down its sawmill and pellet plant in Chetwynd, leaving 157 people without jobs in the community, about 300 kilometres northeast of Prince George.

The company also announced an extended closure of its mill in Houston, B.C., to re-focus operations on manufacturing, impacting a further 333 employees in the forestry town 300 kilometres west of Prince George.

And on Friday, Western Forest Products put 100 more people out of work on Vancouver Island as it announced it will not be restarting its Port Alberni mill.

"It's really tough because it's been our main industry here, forever," said Houston mayor Shane Brienen in an interview the day after Canfor's announcement. "It's what keeps our town going."

Brienen emphasized it's not just employees at the mill who will feel the loss, but also contractors, truck drivers and other roles in the industry.

"It affects us in every way," he said. "There's a lot of worrying."

While another mill — along with nearby mines — continue to operate in Chetwynd, the closure of one of the community's oldest employers will impact all the roughly 3,000 residents, said chief administrative officer for the district, Steve McLain.

He spoke to CBC Radio West host Sarah Penton about Canfor's closure, its impact on their community, and what comes next.

The following interview has been edited for length and clarity.

What was going through your hear and mind when you heard the news?

We were all just frankly devastated. It just guts a small community like ourselves.

It's 157 direct jobs but there's many, many more people impacted. There's all the logging contractors and truck drivers and haulers and all of our local businesses.

I mean, we we have 3,100 people in town — it impacts every single person here one way or another. 

It's devastating.

Did you know this was coming?

No. I mean, we've seen that there's issues and Canfor has been very upfront. There's, you know, the beetle kill issues and the general market conditions and the shortage of fibre — we've seen the shortage of fibre for some time. 

We didn't know it was coming this soon, we didn't know it was coming for sure, but we had a pretty good idea that Canfor was struggling.

They've been really strong communicators throughout the process so far.

What did they tell you?

They're going to work really hard with the employees that are being let go, so any eligible employees will receive severance packages.

They're going to work with the government on bridging for those employees that are close to retirement age.

Anybody that can transfer to other Canfor mills or facilities will retain their seniority and have some [help with] moving expenses.

In late April they'll run the last boards through the planer and after the wind-down is done, they will keep the yard as a laydown yard [a place to store logs destined for other locations].

They feel there's enough fibre in the area to run one mill. So we have the West Fraser [sawmill] locally, as well, and they're hoping that with their tree farm licence they can send some fibre to West Fraser and to the Fort St. John Canfor mill, and hopefully keep those two operations viable.

What's the reaction you're hearing from friends and family in town?

It's a real feeling of of grief and loss. Our mayor worked for 41 years at this mill. He worked from the time he was 18 until he retired at 60. There's employees there that have been there for more than 40 years.

It's been a huge part of our community for 60 years.

We always talk about an economic spin-off, but the human spin-off here is just incalculable. 

This will uproot families. People are worried about making a living now, about putting food on tables and roofs over their children's heads.

You can't really overemphasize how hard of a hit this is on a small community.

What's the future of Chetwynd now?

We are diverse. We have two coal mines in the area, we have the other mill, we have oil and gas, we have agriculture.

And we know that northerners, at the end of the day, are resilient, and we'll take a punch and keep on going.

But as to how this spins out over the next few years, nobody can really say.

I've had grown men weeping to me today, in tears, because of the loss they feel.