MACKENZIE — The District of Mackenzie has seen challenges in recent years with a downturn in British Columbia’s forestry industry, but Mayor Joan Atkinson said that diversifying into other industries has made a big impact on her community.
On Wednesday, June 18 and Thursday, June 19, representatives from the Regional District of Fraser-Fort George travelled to Mackenzie for a tour of local facilities and to hold that month’s board of directors meeting.
The Citizen sent a reporter north to cover those events and interviewed Atkinson during the trip.
“I certainly think we are doing quite well, regardless of the circumstance we find ourselves in,” said Atkinson, who has served on Mackenzie council since 2007. “We suffered a huge loss in taxation from 2024 to 2025 as a result of the closure of two large industrial facilities, but this community has always been resilient.”
Canfor said it was indefinitely curtailing activity at its Mackenzie sawmill in July 2019. The Tyee reported in 2024 that the after the facility was sold to Peak Renewables in 2022, all the equipment at the mill was sent to another facility in Louisiana.
Paper Excellence permanently shuttered its Mackenzie pulp mill in April 2021.
However, Atkinson noted two factors that have helped the local forestry industry. The first was a visit from Forests Minister Ravi Parmar, where Atkinson said he announced a change in an appraisal system that makes it more economically viable for companies to operate in Northern BC.
The second is ownership of nearby timber supply areas by First Nations.
“Probably 50 per cent of the annual allowable cut in our timber supply area belongs to First Nations,” Atkinson said.
“The province is trying to achieve a 20 per cent total across the province. We’re already at 50 and that was a result of Canfor selling their cut. Half was purchased by the McLeod Lake Indian Band, half was purchased by Tsay Keh Dene Band. Both of those First Nations bands have had successful logging companies for many, many years.”
That transfer happened last fall.
The nations’ prior experience, Atkinson said, made them well equipped to taking over that tenure. She said she’s optimistic that the transfer will benefit Mackenzie going forward.
Since 2009, the district and McLeod Lake have partnered on the McLeod Lake Mackenzie Community Forest. Logging profits from the venture are split in thirds between the district, the First Nation and the forest itself.
The day before the interview, Atkinson said Mackenzie and McLeod Lake both received $300,000 cheques from the venture. The forest also sends out around $150,000 to local non-profit societies.
Beyond forestry, Atkinson said the opening of the Mt. Milligan copper and gold mine in 2013 brought in a lot of local jobs. On the other side of the Pine Pass, which traverses the northern Rocky Mountains, Atkinson said a lot of workers in Mackenzie commute to Conuma Resources coal mining operations.
“We have so many families now supported by the mining industry,” Atkinson said.
The mayor also thinks that Mackenzie is being recognized as a great place to live and raise a family because of low crime rates, reasonable housing costs and proximity to the great outdoors.
Later this year, the installation of high-speed fibre-optic internet services is expected to finish up. Once that happens, Atkinson said it’ll make Mackenzie more attractive to people who work from home.
Though there is good cellular network coverage in town, Atkinson said if you drive five minutes down the highway it disappears.
“It would be awesome if we had full cell coverage right across the province, right across the country,” she said. “It’s still an urban versus rural (issue).”
The tour locations for the regional district board included a new $6.5 million fire hall that opened in May made possible by provincial funding and upgrades to the Mackenzie Recreation Centre facilitated by a $2.9 million grant from the federal government.
During the fire hall tour, Atkinson said she had been surprised when Mackenzie was granted the money by former premier John Horgan in 2019 as she felt the district was frequently left out of provincial funding.
She credits that partially to the government doing a better job of listening to Mackenzie’s needs and partially to the district doing a better job of advocating for itself.
Last year, Atkinson said, Mackenzie finally received a full complement of paramedics from the province after previously only having four part-time positions.
All eight of the doctors in the community operate out of the Mackenzie and District Hospital and Health Centre. Atkinson said everyone has a family doctor and the hospital was recently approved to get residents sent there from the University of British Columbia’s medical program.
Because all the doctors are Northern Health employees and not running private practices, she said they have more time to deal with patients.
This February, School District 57 staff issued a long-range facilities plan suggesting that Mackenzie’s only remaining elementary school, Morfee Elementary, could be closed and amalgamated with Mackenzie Secondary.
Asked about that possibility, Atkinson said it might happen in 10 years or not at all and she doesn’t want to spend too much time considering something that may never happen.
Last year, the Ernie Bodin Community Centre — home to the local museum, arts council, radio station and potters’ guild — closed its doors after reaching the end of its lifespan.
The Mackenzie Community Arts Council moved to a former Sikh Temple, which had gone unused for years. Atkinson said after pulling in around $500,000 in grant funding for renovations, a grand opening event is being held on Saturday, Aug. 23.
After the old centre is demolished, Atkinson said there’s been talk of building seniors’ housing on the site because there’s very little of it in town.
Seniors’ housing and extended care is likely to be the next project the community lobbies higher levels of government to fund so that people in town can age in place rather than have to move south and potentially away from their family.