Job losses hit B.C. Interior town hard

The jobs have gone, and now the people are beginning to follow.

Some residents of Mackenzie, B.C. are leaving the Interior town after a slump in the forest industry led to the loss of more than 1,500 jobs.

Industry officials attribute the job losses to mill shutdowns, downtime and layoffs brought on by the downturn in the U.S. housing market over the past year.

"Everybody else is leaving. It's horrible," said Russell Shell, a teenager whose family is among those packing up to leave now that the school year is over. "The mills, they just closed down. It's had a huge impact."

His father Dennis has already found work in job-rich Alberta.

"[Mackenzie] has changed. The people aren't here, just a few of my friends are still left," Dennis Shell said.

Kari Rivest was a lumber grader at Mackenzie's Abitibi wood products mill, but since the mill's closure, she's spent her time coaching lacrosse.

She blames the government for Mackenzie's problems.

"I am pissed off, to tell you the truth, because for a lot of people this is a way of life. This is home and the government is forcing people to move and find jobs elsewhere," she said.

However, despite Mackenzie's current problems, the town's mayor is optimistic the community has a bright future.

"This town is not dead," Stephanie Killam said. "It may have had its problems, and has its problems, and, like any other town, will always have its problems, but people will still live here.

"If we continue to work on the projects that we have, and that includes the mine … and the tourism projects and our First Nations partners, we will be here. It will just be with different people and with a different view and probably lots of diversification because that's our aim," Killam said.

Diversification has helped sustain other once resource-dependent communities such as Tumbler Ridge, which became a virtual ghost town in the 1990's when its coal mine closed.

However, that town became a popular tourist draw after dinosaur footprints and fossils were found in 2002. It now bills itself as B.C.'s Dinosaur Country.