The now-closed Rustad sawmill may be reborn as a skills training centre.
"We are working on some options around what that site might be used for," jobs minister Pat Bell said Monday and added Canfor, the United Steelworkers, a private party and a post-secondary institute are interested in starting up a trades training program at the site.
Further detail probably won't be known until March, but Bell, the MLA for Prince George-Mackenzie, said it will probably be forest-industry oriented although the skills would be transferable to mining and oil and gas.
Canfor Corp. announced permanent closure of the mill earlier this month, nearly two-and-a-half years after it was temporary shuttered.
The move obligated Canfor to pay nearly 150 employees severance for their years of service.
The announcement came a week after Canfor announced a $60-million deal to buy Tembec's Elko and Canal Flats sawmills in Southern B.C.
About 1.1 million cubic metres of combined Crown, private land and contract annual allowable cut came with the purchases.
Until its closure in July 2009, the Rustad sawmill had operated since 62 years, 10 of them under Canfor ownership. It was closed with the downturn in the U.S. housing market and considered simply too old and inefficient to operate in today's climate.
