Written by GORDON HOEKSTRA
Citizen staff
|
|
Thursday, 28 August 2008 |
Related Items
CEO JIM SHEPARDSTEPHANIE KILLAMSUPREME COURTDAN WHITE
"Canfor is looking at their bottom line, and not the communities they will rely on in the future," said a disappointed Stephanie Killam.
The court recently approved the sale of the pulp mill to Edmonton-based Worthington Properties for up to $20 million. If the deal does not include the chip agreement -- considered critical to supplying the raw material needed to produce pulp -- the price drops as low as $6.5 million.
But Judge Donald Brenner also ruled Canfor must continue to supply the wood chips.
Canfor said this week it was going to appeal that decision.
Canfor president and CEO Jim Shepard said his company is not against the pulp mill restarting, however, they do believe the contract was broken. "We don't want to see it back in place, we'll just have to see how it plays out in court," he said.
Shepard noted that Canfor never liked the agreement, in part because it allowed the pulp mill to stop taking chips under poor economic circumstances, but there was no such provision for the sawmill. "It was a very lopsided agreement," noted Shepard.
Some Mackenzie residents have viewed the Canfor's effort to cancel the agreement as a measure to send a chill on prospective buyers of the pulp mill. Canfor has also closed its sawmill operations in Mackenzie, 175 kilometres north of Prince George, which were a source of wood chips.
At one time the sawmills and pulp mill were tied together, first under the original owner, B.C. Forest Products, and later under Fletcher Challenge. When Fletcher Challenge decided to concentrate on pulp and paper production in the mid-90s, the two sawmills in Mackenzie were sold to TimberWest. TimberWest then sold the mills to Slocan in 1997, and later Canfor became owner when it merged with Slocan. The fibre agreement between the pulp mill and sawmills was established when the operations were separated in the mid-90s.
A lawyer representing Worthington Properties has said the Edmonton-based property development company, headed by Dan White, intends to run the pulp mill.
White, who has visited the pulp mill at Mackenzie already, has been unavailable for comment.
Killam said that during a meeting with White he vowed to complete the sale and eventually run the mill.
White did say he needed a fibre supply, added Killam, who said she had no idea how he would do that if the agreement with Canfor does not remain in place.
Killam said that, perhaps, if the pulp mill doesn't run in the fall, it will run in the spring.
She also characterized the controversy around the wood chip supply as just one more road block for Mackenzie. The hard-hit community is working on a diversification strategy that includes tourism and mining.
Some residents have also found jobs out of town for the next six months, said Killam.
Mackenzie, like other forest-based communities in northern B.C., has been hurt by a forestry downturn led by a collapse in the U.S. housing sector. More than 1,200 people are off the job in the community of 4,700.
Mackenzie residents have been hoping a sale of the pulp mill could see it return to operation, and with it, 260 jobs, since unlike lumber, pulp prices are at the profit-making level.
 |
|
Last Updated ( Friday, 29 August 2008 )
|
Subscribe to this comment's feed
