The wheels have stopped turning, perhaps forever, at the Babine Forest Products site near Burns Lake.
The sawmill portion of the complex exploded and burned in a deadly blast on Jan. 20 that is still under WorkSafeBC investigation. Almost 14 million board feet of raw lumber was left in the yard, so the undamaged planer mill still had about six weeks of work left. That work is now done. The last board went through the smoothing teeth on Friday.
"It was hard to walk away. Had a good cry in the shower," said Lloyd Abraham on the Babine accident's commemorative Facebook page.
Mel Joseph added, "I look around and spotted one fellow welder looking at the mill in sadness and disbelief. Workers keep looking at the mill and close their eyes and wish they could see that nothing has happen to the mill. Some of us wish we could turn back time and I believe that most of us that are out here do find a place to ourselves and shed a tear. To all Babine Forest Products workers, it was a pleasure working with you and hope that we could see ourselves back out here working again one day. I sure will miss this place."
Robert Hanson still gets to go to work at Babine, but does the grim task of demolition on the site where he used to mill wood.
"It was sad watching the last shift at the planer, people hugging, shaking hands, wishing each other the best," he said. "I was on the other side of the fence cutting down the old girl, feeling left out because nobody is allowed on my side [due to safety regulations]. It is great to see we are family when shit hits the fan. I am glad to say I work at Babine. You can't take that from me or any other Babine worker. Let's make it happen; let's rebuild."
A new mill is far from certain.
The results of the investigation are still to be announced, as are the results of the provincial MLAs committee examining the province's timber supply options. Their pending Aug. 15 report will inform the government's decision on what the next set of allowable annual cut numbers will look like in the Lakes Forest District and all others in BC.
The mill's owner, Hampton Affiliates based in Oregon, needs to know the annual allowable cut numbers before deciding if it can afford to build a new mill or not.
"We plan to rebuild a mill that would produce roughly two-thirds the amount the old mill did, going from about 300 million board-feet of lumber a year to 200 or 250 million board-feet," said company CEO Steve Zika. If the mill doesn't have a reliable source of that much wood, they likely can't rebuild, he explained.
Although petitions and rallies have pushed the message to the provincial government that the town's fortunes largely rest on Babine's future, it is already too late for many former emplyees.
"By the time - if - they rebuild, many of our guys and gals will have moved on to new jobs, new homes, new lives," said Becky Thompson, who had family members work at Babine and helped with some of the community support initiatives after the blast. "When Employment Insurance runs out and the mill (if rebuilt) isn't ready to rock 'n' roll yet, what happens then? I'm also worried that if they rebuild it'll be a 'super efficient' mill and won't need anywhere near the numbers of employees to run, though it may stabilize logging industry jobs."
Endako Mines offered work to some Babine employees, but not everyone from the mill could get a permanent position there.
Jocelyn Fraser, director of corporate responsibility for Thompson Creek Metals Company, said 38 workers from Babine were hired on a temporary contract. The original contract was to go until April 30, but was extended until June 30. From the 38 employees, 11 were hired full time, eight are continuing to work under contract until Aug 31, an additional six have been approved for full time positions; three have found permanent employment elsewhere and 15 completed their contract and finished work June 30.
Others have found jobs at Huckleberry Mines and other resource-based work, but these are out-of-town locations. A few others were transferred to positions at Hampton's other mill in Burns Lake, Decker Lake Forest Products, but this is a smaller mill with little extra work available for the displaced workforce.
