Monthly Archives: June 2019

Tolko is pleased to announce that it has been recognized by the Canadian Centre for Diversity and Inclusion (CCDI) with the 2019 Employer Initiative of the Year Award (Western Canada) for its ‘Leadership Impact for Women’ program. …CCDI’s Awards of Success are designed to recognize significant contributions to diversity and inclusion in Canada. The Employer Initiative of the Year Award recognizes an employer for a specific initiative or practice that has had an impact on a diverse group. Tolko’s ‘Leadership Impact for Women’ program was started in 2017 and consists of four modules designed to give female employees at Tolko the skills and tools they need to become stronger leaders. 

Steve Zika

More than a dozen sawmills shut down across the province in June amid industry difficulties but the two locals mills of Hampton Lumber are still running. …“Certainly Babine and Decker Lake are not immune to the challenges resulting from a weak lumber market and extremely high log costs,” said Steve Zika, Chief Executive Officer of Hampton Affiliates, which owns the two mills. The CEO pointed to a few factors that have helped the company avoid curtailments at its mills in B.C. “We believe the synergy between Babine and Decker, our strong sales group which is focused on market diversity, a focus on cost reduction and a commitment to continual improvement from everyone at the mill sites all adds up to help us better protect the mills from curtailments.” …Zika hopes the recent improvement in lumber prices will lift up the prospects for other mills in the province.

Results of a strike vote taken at Western Forest Products mills, including Chemainus, and logging operations in the region are expected to be known Friday. United Steelworkers Local 1-1937 and the company are far apart in negotiations for a new contract. WFP Ladysmith and WFP Value Added employees are represented by the Public and Private Workers of Canada and not involved in current negotiations. The issues are vast between the two sides, resulting in a stalemate at this stage of negotiations and precipitating the strike vote. “It was clear Western Forest Products was not going to respond to our proposals in a meaningful way,” said Local 1-1937 President Brian Butler. “They themselves tabled some massive concessions.” …“Hopefully, it doesn’t end up in a labour dispute. They’ll have time to respond to us after a vote and get things back on track.”

Susan Yurkovich

The Mountain Pine Beetle epidemic, record-breaking wildfire seasons and challenging market conditions are still being blamed for the recent challenges in BC’s forestry sector. That’s according to Council of Forest Industries President Susan Yurkovich who spoke with Vista Radio following the announcement of curtailments. …However, she is pleased Hampton Lumber is planning to build a new facility in Fort Saint James following an agreement to purchase the sawmill from Conifex for 39-million dollars. “You know, that’s exactly what needs to happen. We have to go through this difficult transition as I mentioned earlier and what we need to do is have the right milling capacity or the right configuration of mills to be able to match with the available timber.” …Yurkovich is confident the industry can move through this difficult stage and wants to see the milling capacity match the fibre available.

Dan Davies

By the time former MLA Blair Lekstrom had been brought in to salvage a caribou recovery plan for the northeast section of the province, it was already too late. Nearly two years of closed-door meetings produced an agreement that by Lekstrom’s estimate, excluded 97 percent of residents who live and work in the region, including local governments, business, the outdoor recreation community and even certain First Nations. My colleagues and I consistently called on the government for transparency. To make matters worse, forests minister Doug Donaldson took a done-deal on the road and tried to pass off hastily organized information sessions as “public engagement.”  …Our local forest industry is already hurting enough. The last thing we need is another hammer blow to the job losses we have already suffered. And rest assured, the oil and gas and mining industries are closely monitoring what is unfolding as well.

John Brink

It’s only getting worse. Numerous mills in B.C. have had to either curtail their production or entirely shut down their facilities. …While many hope the market will go into an upswing, Brink Forest Products Ltd. CEO John Brink, sees it differently but says there are multiple contributing factors. …”There is simply not enough fibre for the amount of capacity that we have right now and in a way, that all relate back to the time of the pine beetle academic through the interior of the province.” …”The other factor, in my opinion at least, is global warming,” he says. …The other part is the incremental part of the timber that may be available in the open market is so minimum that there’s so much competition for it which makes it not viable for some of the operations.

Bob Simpson

Quesnel, and the rest of B.C., experienced more permanent mill closures and forest-sector job losses during the B.C. Liberal’s time in government than at any other time in the province’s history. …If Andrew Wilkinson’s [recent] letter reflects the Liberal’s forestry agenda, it proves two things: One, the Liberals still don’t understand what the real issues are and, two, they would rather play petty politics than support the deep policy shifts needed to tackle the underlying issues that created the crisis. It’s important to note that Quesnel, and the rest of B.C., experienced more permanent mill closures and forest-sector job losses during the B.C. Liberal’s time in government than at any other time in the province’s history, including those we are experiencing today. …Admittedly, Wilkinson wasn’t premier when the Liberals made a mess of the forest sector but the approach he demands that Premier John Horgan take to solve the current crisis is contradictory, hypocritical and stale.