This page contains annotated news stories and press releases with commentary about land reform and the democratic process in British Columbia. Our comments are shown in red.
When 28 000 ha of land was deleted from Western Forest Products Tree Farm Licences, Forest Minister Rich Coleman stated that the deletions would help with Western's debt and stabilize jobs in the forestry sector.
What has played out could not be further from the truth. Western is laying off workers so fast, the island is seeing roughly 5000 out of work in the forestry sector. What has happening with all of the land taken out of the TFL's?, Development! We are continuing to see the likes of Western Forest Products and Timber West become nothing more that development and real estate companies.
To that end we have Western pushing as fast as it can, to have a massive subdivision approved around Jordan River. All this on land that was suppose to ensure some sort of future for forestry.
Visit www.savejordanriver.com to see how you can help shut down Western's subdivison application. BC forests are not for sale.
WFP idles 2,000 workers
Cuts due to softening cedar market push sector unemployment past 12,000
Jun 20, 2008
By Andrew A. Duffy and Carla Wilson with files from Gordon
Western Forest Products announced sweeping cutbacks yesterday, laying off 2,000 loggers and sawmill workers in the face of softening demand for cedar products.
The numbers, added to recent layoffs and closures in logging, sawmilling and pulp mill operations, have industry experts estimating there could be as many as 5,000 forest industry employees now out of work on Vancouver Island.
The number of unemployed B.C. forest workers is now up to more than 12,000.
Scalers and loaders do their work in the sort area of the Ladysmith Sawmill division, Western Forest Products.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Scalers and loaders do their work in the sort area of the Ladysmith Sawmill division, Western Forest Products.
More than half of WFP's logging operations will go down in July and August, along with its sawmill at Duke Point.
Of its 2,400 hourly employees, WFP has now idled 800. Of the 2,000 laid off yesterday, 1,200 of them were contract loggers.
The Duke Point mill closure is just the latest shot to the Nanaimo area, following hard on the heels of Pope & Talbot shutting down its Harmac operation, putting more than 530 employees out of work, and Madill Equipment's bankruptcy that idled 190 people.
"This is awful news, it adds to the concern for the viability of the forest industry and the good jobs that go with it," said Nanaimo Mayor Gary Korpan. "It's tough for the families and the individuals involved and that is the biggest concern."
Korpan said the economic ripple effect will be huge through the community.
"A lot of suppliers and businesses are affected by such large closures and layoffs, and as diverse as our economy is, it is still affected by closures of this magnitude," he said. "This will add to the concern for the fragility of the economy, people become more cautious and everyone starts to clamp down."
The same pain was being felt all over the Island.
"Every layoff hurts," said Patrick Deakin, economic development manager for Port Alberni. "We are still very much a forest industry-dependent community. It involves the individuals, their families. There is a multiplier in here, too. Local business feels the effect and then the employees of those local businesses feel the effect and on it goes. It's tough."
In Port Alberni, WFP and Catalyst are tied together because fibre is needed for the paper mill, he said.
According to WFP, there was no choice but to curtail production as markets for its products are weak. Cedar has been one of the few B.C. forest products where demand has remained strong but it is beginning to soften, the company said. Other major markets -- such as the U.S. and Japan -- remain weak.
David Elstone, forest industry analyst for Equity Research Associates of Vancouver, said the drop was enough to force WFP, a major supplier of cedar on B.C.'s coast, to cut back on supply and move to try to stave off a cedar-market collapse.
"What it boils down to is we're on the end of the supply chain, and on the important end the average consumer is feeling a little beat up these days with things like high fuel costs and recessionary pressure in the U.S.," said WFP COO Duncan Kerr. "People are just not in the mood to be building decks."
"This is obviously another blow for the forest industry," added Bill Routley, president of Steelworkers Local 1-80 in Duncan, which only has 2,200 of its 4,000 members still working. "We are concerned it will start as a two-month shutdown and expand. If the markets don't improve over the next year we will be in trouble indeed."
Routley, who noted they have loggers in their membership that have not worked in a year, said things look bleak for the industry across the country.
"Markets in Japan and the U.S. are down -- when your largest customer [the U.S.] is buying somewhere between a third and a quarter of what they used to, it has a serious impact."
According to Coast Forest Products Association president Rick Jeffery, the new and existing housing market in the U.S. currently has about 13 months' worth of inventory when they normally would have about four to six months.
"The pipeline is full, and some of our major markets had really bad weather conditions," he said, noting that shortened the spring building season in the U.S. "It's hard to imagine things getting worse."
At this point the coastal industry's logging production is down 30 per cent and lumber production is down 20 per cent from last year.
"And that's compared with a very bad year," said Jeffery, noting the coast produced 1.7 billion board feet of lumber last year compared with the more typical 2.4 billion.
The industry is in survival mode right now, Jeffrey added, as it works on market diversification, new products and starting to rationalize operations.
"When it emerges it will be a tighter, smaller, more efficient industry when it comes out the back side."
The numbers, added to recent layoffs and closures in logging, sawmilling and pulp mill operations, have industry experts estimating there could be as many as 5,000 forest industry employees now out of work on Vancouver Island.
The number of unemployed B.C. forest workers is now up to more than 12,000.
Scalers and loaders do their work in the sort area of the Ladysmith Sawmill division, Western Forest Products.View Larger Image View Larger Image
Scalers and loaders do their work in the sort area of the Ladysmith Sawmill division, Western Forest Products.
More than half of WFP's logging operations will go down in July and August, along with its sawmill at Duke Point.
Of its 2,400 hourly employees, WFP has now idled 800. Of the 2,000 laid off yesterday, 1,200 of them were contract loggers.
The Duke Point mill closure is just the latest shot to the Nanaimo area, following hard on the heels of Pope & Talbot shutting down its Harmac operation, putting more than 530 employees out of work, and Madill Equipment's bankruptcy that idled 190 people.
"This is awful news, it adds to the concern for the viability of the forest industry and the good jobs that go with it," said Nanaimo Mayor Gary Korpan. "It's tough for the families and the individuals involved and that is the biggest concern."
Korpan said the economic ripple effect will be huge through the community.
"A lot of suppliers and businesses are affected by such large closures and layoffs, and as diverse as our economy is, it is still affected by closures of this magnitude," he said. "This will add to the concern for the fragility of the economy, people become more cautious and everyone starts to clamp down."
The same pain was being felt all over the Island.
"Every layoff hurts," said Patrick Deakin, economic development manager for Port Alberni. "We are still very much a forest industry-dependent community. It involves the individuals, their families. There is a multiplier in here, too. Local business feels the effect and then the employees of those local businesses feel the effect and on it goes. It's tough."
In Port Alberni, WFP and Catalyst are tied together because fibre is needed for the paper mill, he said.
According to WFP, there was no choice but to curtail production as markets for its products are weak. Cedar has been one of the few B.C. forest products where demand has remained strong but it is beginning to soften, the company said. Other major markets -- such as the U.S. and Japan -- remain weak.
David Elstone, forest industry analyst for Equity Research Associates of Vancouver, said the drop was enough to force WFP, a major supplier of cedar on B.C.'s coast, to cut back on supply and move to try to stave off a cedar-market collapse.
"What it boils down to is we're on the end of the supply chain, and on the important end the average consumer is feeling a little beat up these days with things like high fuel costs and recessionary pressure in the U.S.," said WFP COO Duncan Kerr. "People are just not in the mood to be building decks."
"This is obviously another blow for the forest industry," added Bill Routley, president of Steelworkers Local 1-80 in Duncan, which only has 2,200 of its 4,000 members still working. "We are concerned it will start as a two-month shutdown and expand. If the markets don't improve over the next year we will be in trouble indeed."
Routley, who noted they have loggers in their membership that have not worked in a year, said things look bleak for the industry across the country.
"Markets in Japan and the U.S. are down -- when your largest customer [the U.S.] is buying somewhere between a third and a quarter of what they used to, it has a serious impact."
According to Coast Forest Products Association president Rick Jeffery, the new and existing housing market in the U.S. currently has about 13 months' worth of inventory when they normally would have about four to six months.
"The pipeline is full, and some of our major markets had really bad weather conditions," he said, noting that shortened the spring building season in the U.S. "It's hard to imagine things getting worse."
At this point the coastal industry's logging production is down 30 per cent and lumber production is down 20 per cent from last year.
"And that's compared with a very bad year," said Jeffery, noting the coast produced 1.7 billion board feet of lumber last year compared with the more typical 2.4 billion.
The industry is in survival mode right now, Jeffrey added, as it works on market diversification, new products and starting to rationalize operations.
"When it emerges it will be a tighter, smaller, more efficient industry when it comes out the back side."
