The epic failure of our forest industry

[Gone_Fishin]

What local mills? How many 'local mills' are still in existence - not very many, I would say.

Local mills remaining on the coast are only open because they can subsidize the cost of their logs by exporting those that don't fit the mills' cutting profile. TLA estimates an immediate loss of 7500 jobs if exports are banned, IIRC.

[maryjane48]

if you look into what happened its far from witch hunt . the bclibs wanted to break unions at the cost of bc good pating jobs. of course automation plays a part in how many human jobs there will be , but there will be some , its a fairly green industry and there is lots spinoffs for towns they are close to .

[hobbyguy]

Reminder: Skeena Cell and the associated West Fraser sawmill and a few others went belly up despite the last NDP government pouring hundreds of millions of $$$$ in.

Reminder: After the NDP poured millions into Ocean Falls - the mill closed anyway.

Economics dictates how many mills stay open, and only those that modernize/automate survive. The old time forestry jobs have no more chance of coming back than Trump's coal mine jobs.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/british-columbia/can-burns-lake-recover-from-deadly-sawmill-explosion/article6131020/

"Since 2005, dozens of mills have closed and thousands of forestry jobs have disappeared in B.C., largely as a result of a collapse in the U.S. housing market."

You also can not forget that efforts to save remaining old growth forest (which I agree with) also remove available supply.

It isn't a simple picture.

[Btfsplck]

It's easy to see why the NDP can't run a business. Just look at what the NDP supporters say regarding forestry in BC. It would appear they have no idea of global realities when it comes to forestry and the sale of lumber.

"what our forestry needs is reopening of mills" = Pretty simplistic thinking.

[Boda]

more lies . there is no bugs in my hometown yet the forestry there was destroyed by campbell . you shouldnt parrot stories without facts . and even in the areas with bug kill more could have been done .

I thought you wrote in a previous post you were from Terrace area?

The wood fiber processing industry in BC is booming. Mills are being closed strategically due to exponentially higher production rates/automation.
I don't know the stats for sure but I'd wager overall production levels are higher now than they've ever been?

For example West Fraser and Canfor shut down mills simultaneously in Houston and Quesnel respectively in a timber rights exchange deal. It only makes sense, why would they pay your family to hall logs past each other on the highway if they can cut transportation costs thru strategic business policies.

[GordonH]

I've said it before I will say it again.

Any & all business should either sink or swim on their own dime, if Governments are to give funds to bail them out.... they must be paid back with modest interest (within reasonable time frame i.e not a decade later).
No ifs ands or buts about it

[maryjane48]

I've said it before I will say it again.

Any & all business should either sink or swim on their own dime, if Governments are to give funds to bail them out.... they must be paid back with modest interest (within reasonable time frame i.e not a decade later).
No ifs ands or buts about it

i agree but most the logging companys at the beggining of the campbell years that i personaly knew of were making money up intil then . the problem was campbells personal vendetta against the unions and the promise of easy money selling raw logs . that initself was enough to spell doom .


the pulpmill in kitimat wasnt loosing money . what they lost was supply of wood to make the pulp . the sawmill in kitwanga was going to be bought by the first nations band there and be run by mostly white people . again no supply of logs . again a chinese company showed up dismantled the saw mill and moved it to china .


the industry was easyily able to suport the wages what it couldnt do was process imaginary logs because the real ones left bc untouched

[Urban Cowboy]

It's easy to see why the NDP can't run a business. Just look at what the NDP supporters say regarding forestry in BC. It would appear they have no idea of global realities when it comes to forestry and the sale of lumber.

"what our forestry needs is reopening of mills" = Pretty simplistic thinking.

They have no reality period, would sum it up better!

[Gixxer]

Lots of misinformation, and B.S. in that article.

[Mr_Mrs_Wolf]

a friend of mine posted this on their Facebook page.

We can all understand and agree that adding more social and economic value to our domestic resources is a positive for the communities which we live in. British Columbia's record on secondary remanufacturing in the forestry sector has been marginal at best. The primary sector record is equally as dismal due to Liberal Policy. The export of logs should only be tolerated on an extreme exception after all other avenues for their use have been exhausted. The Liberal's poor choice of strategy with our forests is further referenced in their early-2000 decision to export low-grade lumber to China for secondary remanufacturing. Since this time, two-thirds of the secondary manufacturing operations in this province have permanently closed their doors due to a lack of access to local fibre. This has directly resulted in the loss of thousands of jobs in the Province. With this, I strongly disagree with the BC Liberal's position or lack thereof on protecting jobs in this province. We cannot continue to make poor decisions with respect to adding social and economic value to our forest sector.

Amidst this, I continue to own and operate a number of secondary manufacturing plants in Northern British Columbia. We proudly employ over 350 persons. We have no timber rights. We have received no handouts or subsidies from any level of Government. I can proudly say that we are "SUCCESSFUL IN SPITE OF GOVERNMENT NOT BECAUSE OF"

Note, I do not belong or will belong to any political party.

https://thetyee.ca/Opinion/2015/02/04/B ... g-Exports/

[hobbyguy]

BC is exporting just as much lumber as it always have. Just doing it with automated mills that don't have as many employees. It is the same scenario in a different field of endeavor as the auto industry - jobs there have disappeared in large numbers, but more cars are being manufactured.

As far as pulp mills go, very largely as newspapers go, so goes the pulp and paper industry. The pulp and paper industry in BC has long suffered from the effects of declining markets that began with efforts to recycle paper decades ago. There is no reversing the trend of newspapers having declining readership, and no reversal of recycling efforts. In that scenario only the most modern and efficient will survive. Neither Eurocan nor Skeena Cellulose fell into those categories. Eurocan, for example, was closed after selling prices had fallen 40%. Not very many businesses can can sustain that kind of price drop and survive. Prices have rebounded a bit since then, because inefficient mills like Eurocan are no longer participating in the market over supply.

That said, the future of the BC pulp and paper mill industry is bound to be a rocky one. World demand for newsprint fell by 7% in 2014, 12% in 2015 - not bad years economically overall. http://www.paperage.com/issues/july_august2015/07_2015marketgrade.pdf

There really is very little, practically nothing, that a provincial government can do impact this situation.

[BeingHuman]

The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives says B.C. exported more raw logs between 2013 and 2016 than in any other 4-year period. In a newly published research paper, the CCPA says B.C. has exported nearly 26 million cubic metres of wood worth an estimated $3 billion since 2013. The Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives is calling for a ban on the export of raw logs from old growth forests and the creation of more log-processing jobs in British Columbia.

No doubt about it, we can all see what is going on here, raw log export is up while major Lumber Corporations are closing BC sawmills because of a shortage of timber supply… who are they kidding, it’s easier to transport whole logs nearly 10,000 kms to China than transport it a couple of hundred kms to a sawmill short on fiber supply. Something stinks!!!

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-c ... -1.4000765

[George+]

There has been very little effort at value added production in B.C. Forestry.

Huge slash piles are still openly burned..little effort at pelletizing or chipping.

Even the minister, Steve Thomson, admitted better use of wood fiber is needed.

The companies are simply the tail wagging the dog.

[hobbyguy]

BC mills have first right of refusal before any raw logs are exported.

The BC government has allowed First Nations logging companies to directly export in order to provide jobs where mills would be uneconomic.

And there is a LOT more to it: http://www.pfla.bc.ca/media-misinformation-2/log-exports-a-symptom-not-a-casue/

Pellets are generally made from waste. Many pellet mills now operate in BC plus more happening.

http://www.canadianmanufacturing.com/manufacturing/canfor-build-two-wood-pellet-plants-b-c-140788/

https://www.pellet.org/images/WoodPelletFactsheet.pdf

Plus in terms of fibre utilization, you conveniently forget the co-generation plants that have been built.

I do notice, however, a dearth of those types of facilities in NDP country. I don't know why, but it is notable.

[George+]

Then why in hell are there huge slash piles,
Being burned every year..Spring and Fall
And sometimes even in the dead heat of Summer?!