Canfor Pulp to indefinitely curtail one production line at Northwood facility and to permanently close Polar Sawmill

“The persistent shortage of economic fibre, particularly in the Prince George region, has led to the closure or curtailment of a number of sawmills, which in turn has dramatically reduced the volume of chips available to meet the needs of our pulp operations. Despite exhaustive efforts, including expanding well beyond our traditional operating region, there is simply not enough residual fibre to supply the current production capacity of all our operations.”

Canfor Pulp currently operates two pulp production lines at its Northwood facility and one production line at its nearby Intercon facility. The Company will continue to operate both lines at Northwood over the next few weeks, followed by an orderly wind-down process of one line at the beginning of the third quarter.

“These decisions are heartbreaking for our company that has been proudly headquartered in B.C. for more than 85 years. More importantly, these decisions have a profound impact on our employees, First Nations partners, contractors, customers, suppliers, and communities that rely on a healthy forest industry. In the weeks ahead, we will work with our union partners to develop a transition plan that considers severance provisions and other means to support our impacted employees. We will also seek opportunities to divest our associated tenure to support other local manufacturing operations who are facing the same challenges accessing fibre, in the hope of preventing another operation from being closed or curtailed,” says CEO Don Kayne.

Pattison Media is owned by Jim Pattison Industries, a majority shareholder in Canfor.

by Greg Fry

Canfor Pulp to indefinitely curtail one production line at Northwood facility and to permanently close Polar Sawmill

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