Canfor Lumber. Photo Credit: Adam Berls/CKPGtoday.ca Staff

By Adam Berls

polar sawmill curtailment

‘Absolutely devastating’: Reaction to Polar Sawmill curtailment

Nov 15, 2023 | 3:19 PM

PRINCE GEORGE — Forestry in northern B.C. has taken another massive hit as Canfor announced on Tuesday, that it will be curtailing its operations at Polar Sawmill in Bear Lake, for six months starting in January. For City Councillor Brian Skakun, the news is upsetting.

“I just think it’s absolutely terrible news. And, you know, if there’s any way that Canfor can commit to reopen instead of sort of leaving it open ended, I think they need to do that.” – Councillor Brian Skakun, City of Prince George

Canfor says that the curtailment is due to a shortage of economically available fibre in the region. Due to the lack of fibre, Canfor says that they “simply don’t have enough economic fibre to support both of [the] Prince George-area mills through the winter.”

“In the Prince George region right now, we have less than 50% of our winter harvest volume permitted. So essentially at the end of the day, that means we are we only over the winter, we’re only going to get 50% of the volume of fiber that we had been anticipating this year.” – Michelle Ward, VP, Corporate Communications, Canfor

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We asked Canfor what the situation would be if not enough permits are in place after the six months is up. They said that they “would be potentially looking at continuing to make some very challenging decisions if we don’t have the permits in place.” Canfor says that this is a top priority for them in terms of their discussions with the “government and with the Ministry of Forests and be able to talk to them about the urgent need to get permits flowing in the region.”

In terms of how many people will be affected, around 190 people are employed at Polar and but didn’t get an exact number on how many will be impacted.

We anticipate that a significant number of those folks will be will be impacted by the by the announcement. Wherever possible, if folks are interested in moving to one of our other facilities, if we’ve got jobs available at other mills, that’s always our first our top preference and what we try and work with folks to do.” – Michelle Ward, VP, Corporate Communications, Canfor

Canfor recognizes that that option may not be possible for everyone and says that they are in talks with the United Steelworkers Union, the union that represents the workers at Polar Sawmill.

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

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Twitter: @AdamBerls

Email: Adam.Berls@pattisonmedia.com