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Mill closings sap lifeblood from towns
Jun 23, 2008
By Dirk Meissner
VICTORIA -- Carol Perron says she can't come right out and say it, but deep down she knows she's making plans for two deaths: her husband's and her community's.
Ms. Perron lives in Mackenzie, a forest industry town in B.C.'s rugged north that's been dropped to its knees by a failing U.S. housing market and the strong Canadian dollar.
Most of Mackenzie's 4,700 residents are employed in the forest industry, but every sawmill in the surrounding area is shut down indefinitely and more than 1,200 people are out of work.
"I don't think we'll see a change here until about 2010," said Ms. Perron, echoing B.C. government forecasts of 18 months, at least, of hard times ahead.
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Ms. Perron said she and her husband, Jack, have lived in Mackenzie for 37 years. They raised four boys and dreamed of staying in the community, located about 185 kilometres north of Prince George, for the rest of their lives.
Now Mr. Perron, a former heavy equipment operator at the downed Canfor sawmill, is terminally ill and the economic prospects for Mackenzie are bleak. The Perrons are being forced to consider other plans.
"It puts a halt in everything that you are looking forward to in terms of your retirement," Ms. Perron said.
Two sons have already left town, one for Saskatchewan and one for Vancouver Island.
One of her boys is employed in mining in Mackenzie, but another has been laid off since November, Ms. Perron said.
"They're trying to tough it out because they don't want to move," she said. But her unemployed son and his family are "barely making it."
Mackenzie is considered ground zero of B.C.'s forest industry meltdown because of its almost total dependence on forestry, but other communities are hurting as much. Last week, Western Forest Products, citing a soft U.S. market, announced it would shut down sawmills on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands for July and August, laying off almost 2,000 workers.
Hundreds of forest workers across British Columbia - in Campbell River, Kamloops, Fort Nelson, Fort St. James and Grand Forks - have been thrown out of work as sawmills and pulp mills announce shutdowns or permanent closings.
On the heels of the softwood lumber dispute and the destruction of the Mountain pine beetle, the current market conditions have been devastating.
B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman said the government doesn't have the ability to flick a magic switch that brings back jobs, but it can attempt to ensure the B.C. forest industry is competitive and viable in the coming decades.
He's been taking heat from unions and the New Democratic opposition, who say the government hasn't done enough. Mr. Coleman maintains the government will not use tax dollars to prop up ailing sawmills.
Cornelis van Kooten, a professor of economics at the University of Victoria, is equally blunt.
He said B.C.'s forest industry will survive, but it needs to become more efficient to stay in business, and rural communities like Mackenzie need to look at economic opportunities other than forestry if they want a future.
Opposition New Democrat forest critic Bob Simpson agrees that problems in the U.S. economy have hurt B.C.'s forest industry, but disagrees with the government's hands-off policy.
He said the government should have controlled the amount of timber shipped to the U.S. markets in an effort to keep the entire industry running on a reduced basis, as opposed to shutdowns, layoffs and closings.
The United Steelworkers Union, which represents many of B.C.'s forest workers, says B.C. has lost 20,000 forest-industry jobs since 2001 when the Liberals were elected.
The union issued a 10-point plan last March that was immediately rejected by the Liberal government because it called for the abrogation or reform of the hard-won Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement.
Ms. Perron lives in Mackenzie, a forest industry town in B.C.'s rugged north that's been dropped to its knees by a failing U.S. housing market and the strong Canadian dollar.
Most of Mackenzie's 4,700 residents are employed in the forest industry, but every sawmill in the surrounding area is shut down indefinitely and more than 1,200 people are out of work.
"I don't think we'll see a change here until about 2010," said Ms. Perron, echoing B.C. government forecasts of 18 months, at least, of hard times ahead.
Print Edition - Section Front
Ms. Perron said she and her husband, Jack, have lived in Mackenzie for 37 years. They raised four boys and dreamed of staying in the community, located about 185 kilometres north of Prince George, for the rest of their lives.
Now Mr. Perron, a former heavy equipment operator at the downed Canfor sawmill, is terminally ill and the economic prospects for Mackenzie are bleak. The Perrons are being forced to consider other plans.
"It puts a halt in everything that you are looking forward to in terms of your retirement," Ms. Perron said.
Two sons have already left town, one for Saskatchewan and one for Vancouver Island.
One of her boys is employed in mining in Mackenzie, but another has been laid off since November, Ms. Perron said.
"They're trying to tough it out because they don't want to move," she said. But her unemployed son and his family are "barely making it."
Mackenzie is considered ground zero of B.C.'s forest industry meltdown because of its almost total dependence on forestry, but other communities are hurting as much. Last week, Western Forest Products, citing a soft U.S. market, announced it would shut down sawmills on Vancouver Island and the Queen Charlotte Islands for July and August, laying off almost 2,000 workers.
Hundreds of forest workers across British Columbia - in Campbell River, Kamloops, Fort Nelson, Fort St. James and Grand Forks - have been thrown out of work as sawmills and pulp mills announce shutdowns or permanent closings.
On the heels of the softwood lumber dispute and the destruction of the Mountain pine beetle, the current market conditions have been devastating.
B.C. Forests Minister Rich Coleman said the government doesn't have the ability to flick a magic switch that brings back jobs, but it can attempt to ensure the B.C. forest industry is competitive and viable in the coming decades.
He's been taking heat from unions and the New Democratic opposition, who say the government hasn't done enough. Mr. Coleman maintains the government will not use tax dollars to prop up ailing sawmills.
Cornelis van Kooten, a professor of economics at the University of Victoria, is equally blunt.
He said B.C.'s forest industry will survive, but it needs to become more efficient to stay in business, and rural communities like Mackenzie need to look at economic opportunities other than forestry if they want a future.
Opposition New Democrat forest critic Bob Simpson agrees that problems in the U.S. economy have hurt B.C.'s forest industry, but disagrees with the government's hands-off policy.
He said the government should have controlled the amount of timber shipped to the U.S. markets in an effort to keep the entire industry running on a reduced basis, as opposed to shutdowns, layoffs and closings.
The United Steelworkers Union, which represents many of B.C.'s forest workers, says B.C. has lost 20,000 forest-industry jobs since 2001 when the Liberals were elected.
The union issued a 10-point plan last March that was immediately rejected by the Liberal government because it called for the abrogation or reform of the hard-won Canada-U.S. Softwood Lumber Agreement.
