Like most forestry workers who have seen the decline of B.C.鈥檚 once-thriving pulp-producing industry, Jonathan Blacker was not surprised when he got the news Thursday afternoon that the company he works for, Canfor Pulp Products Inc., plans to curtail one of its two pulp lines at Northwood Pulp Mill.
The indefinite curtailment means as many 220 Northwood workers are about to lose their jobs and Blacker, president of Unifor Local 603 that represents the 361 active members who work at Northwood, feels their pain.
The 51-year-old machinist has worked at Northwood for 12 years and he鈥檚 hoping he has enough seniority to keep his job, but he鈥檚 not sure. That cloud of uncertainty will hang over the mill for the next few months until the job cuts take effect this summer.
鈥淚t鈥檚 ugly, it鈥檚 a pretty big hit for Prince George,鈥� said Blacker. 鈥淚t鈥檚 pretty bad, I鈥檓 concerned about the workforce and all the employees who are going to lose their jobs.鈥�
Blacker said Northwood absorbed some of the job losses when Canfor shut down its Prince George Pulp and Paper pulp line in April 2023 and several workers who were closer to retirement age took buyouts to keep younger employees at the lower rung of the seniority ladder from losing their jobs. Now they face the reality once again they could be heading for the unemployment line.
鈥淭he average age is probably 25-40 now,鈥� said Blacker. 鈥淟ots of the older people that started at the pulp mill are retired now, they took buyouts when PG (Pulp) was closing so I don鈥檛 know if the government is going to step in again to help these workers.鈥�
Blacker says management jobs will also be lost, but he doesn鈥檛 know how many.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e worried too, it鈥檚 going to affect everybody when you lose half a mill,鈥� said Blacker. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e got couriers, foresters, loggers, truckers, the first-line guys. I鈥檓 sure Canfor is looking at saving jobs and where they can amalgamate people and absorb them, be it at a sawmill out of town or whatever, then Prince George loses again because all that money鈥檚 gone.鈥�
Combined with Canfor鈥檚 other announcements on Thursday that it will permanently close the Polar Sawmill at Bear Lake and that it鈥榮 suspending its reinvestment in its sawmill in Houston, hundreds of direct jobs will be lost as well as hundreds of indirect jobs from support industries.
Blacker points the blame directly at the provincial government and its permitting process which he says creates too many barriers for harvesting companies which he says are shying away from investing in the province鈥檚 forest industry. Harvesting has declined sharply and in 2023 the actual cut was 43 per cent lower than the annual allowable cut set by the province.
鈥淛ust the state of the industry itself and how hard it is to get fibre now through caribou habitat and Indigenous rights, it鈥檚 a tough go,鈥� said Blacker. 鈥淪tumpage fees are way up. We鈥檙e exporting raw logs. There's companies chipping whole logs (to support the wood pellet export industry), that鈥檚 not right.
鈥淚t鈥檚 hard to get cutting permits, it takes a year or two, whereas other places in the world it鈥檚 like a week or two and you can harvest wood. You have to go further out to get the wood. They cut too much wood too fast.鈥�
He says forestry is looked upon as a dying industry by young workers and skilled trades people, which compounds the problems foresters are facing.
Blacker attended the BC Forest Workers Summit in Victoria in March and two weeks later he said Unifor executives met with the provincial government officials to try to get them to reshape their forestry policies to save jobs. He says they鈥檝e known the industry has been dying and have been too slow to react.
鈥淭hey鈥檝e seen this coming for years,鈥� said Blacker.
鈥淭he bottom line is they鈥檝e managed our plantation horribly. They let the harvesters manage the plantation and of course they鈥檙e going to cut. There鈥檚 wood, there鈥檚 lots of trees left, but it鈥檚 just harder to get now and more hoops to jump through to get it.
鈥淐anfor鈥檚 getting ready to leave, it鈥檚 too hard to make money here now. They鈥檝e harvested what they needed and got all the easy wood. They want out, these big harvesters have made their cash and it will be the smaller guys left, I think.鈥�
Blacker says union management will be coming to the mill next week to discuss the future of the affected workers and he hopes to have more answers for workers when he returns from his holidays on May 20.
鈥淓verybody鈥檚 got truck payments, house payments, mortgage rates and interest rates through the roof, Blacker said. 鈥淢aybe we鈥檝e got to leave British Columbia and go to Edmonton. You鈥檝e got to chase work, you鈥檝e got bills to pay. I鈥檝e been there 12 years and I might just make the cut, but it鈥檚 hard to say and I don鈥檛 know.
鈥淚t鈥檚 no good, the government better step in and do something.鈥�
