Despite surging Chinese lumber demand, which has helped resurrect several shuttered mills in northern B.C., other sawmills remain indefinitely shut down, victims of the malaise in the American housing market.
Still, it is frustrating for workers who want a clear cut answer on whether sawmills like Winton Global and Canfor's Rustad Bros. in Prince George, and another mill in Fort Nelson, will ever re-open, says United Steelworkers 1-424 president Frank Everitt.
"People are definitely running out patience. You can't let them wait forever," said the union boss, noting that workers need to make decisions about their long-term futures.
The two sawmills in Prince George alone employed about 500 people, supporting more jobs in logging and trucking.
The union is in the midst of independent arbitration as part of action against Canfor's Fort Nelson mill to determine if it is now permanently shut down, said Everitt. If a mill is permanently shut down, the company must pay severance.
Everitt said Canfor's position is that it plans to operate their shut down mills at some point.
Canfor has re-opened several mills in north and central B.C., including in Quesnel, Mackenzie and Chetwynd.
Canfor's Rustad Bros. sawmill was shut down two years ago. Today, there are no logs in the yard, and virtually no activity at the site. On one day last week, the only signs of life were a pair of pickups parked at the administration offices.
Canfor officials were not available for comment on Monday.
There are even less signs of life at Sinclar Group-owned Winton Global, which was shut down three years ago.
Sinclar Group president Greg Stewart says until the U.S. market turns around -returning to numbers like 1 million to 1.2 million housing starts a year - they cannot make a decision on restarting Winton Global. Housing starts have been tracking well below that in the United States in the past months, at the 500,000 level.
While the rising lumber demand in China is definitely helping, it's not enough to offset the results in the U.S., observed Stewart.
"We understand [workers] are frustrated we can't provide that certainty. But we're not afforded that opportunity today because of the way the market is," he said.
B.C. Forests Minister Steve Thomson was in Prince George Monday, visiting staff and touring forest operations in the area.
Asked about the remaining shuttered mills in Prince George, Thomson said the province will continue to work on diversifying markets in places like China. The province has also begun to make some inroads in India.
He said efforts to get better utilization - reducing timber waste - will also help mills as they will be able to log areas that otherwise might not be economical.
He pointed to the soon-to-be established receiving licences, which will give bioenergy companies access to low-valued timber waste that companies would not normally bring out of the woods.
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