Donald Trump has called the North American Free Trade Agreement the “worst trade deal ever negotiated.” If he were speaking on behalf of Canadian exporters or American consumers of softwood lumber, his point would have some validity. For more than 20 years, NAFTA has failed to deliver free trade in lumber. Instead, a system of…
A third-generation sawmill west of Ottawa is spending $16.9 million to bring its facility up-to-date. Under the expansion project, Lavern Heideman & Sons Ltd. plans to modernize its infrastructure, purchase new equipment and consolidate some of its operations at its mill in Eganville, Ont.—not far from Pembroke, Ont. The project is expected to create 18…
The Tolko paper mill in The Pas, Man. has officially been sold to Canadian Kraft Paper Industries Limited. On Thursday the Manitoba government said the sale was completed after being in the works for several weeks. The purchaser is affiliated with the turn-around company American Industrial Acquisition Corporation. “This is just like the best news you could ever have in…
Jim Scott was anxiously awaiting confirmation that his town’s paper mill had been saved on Sunday. “I haven’t heard anything, either from the seller or buyer,” the mayor of The Pas said. “I’ve been waiting for my phone to ring. But, if it’s all true, what a wonderful thing this is.” Tolko Industries had announced…
The planned closure of Tolko’s Merritt sawmill by the end of the year — throwing 200 workers out of a job — is the latest in 15 years of joblessness and permanent shutdowns in the Interior’s forest sector. Citing a lack of timber, Tolko Industries Ltd. announced this week it will close its Nicola Valley…
More than 200 jobs will be lost when Tolko Industries shuts its Nicola Valley sawmill in Merritt in December because of a lack of lumber. “It’s a dark day for Merritt,” said Marty Gibbons, president of United Steelworkers Local 1417. “We’ve lost one of the two major employers in town.” He said the 203 workers…
SKEENA SAWMILLS is on the verge of announcing substantial improvements to its milling facility and associated works along Hwy16 west of Terrace. Now the only substantial mill in the region, Skeena Sawmills is owned by Roc Holdings Ltd. based in the Lower Mainland. The company is part of a substantial real estate, development and construction…
Last week, a Saint John businessman put forward a revolutionary idea — to relocate the J.D. Irving pulp mill somewhere outside city limits, so the area can blossom into a tourist destination rivalling Niagara Falls. “The city has an image problem,” said Mark Kensington, who’s leasing the iconic Reversing Falls restaurant, “and a solution would…
The mayor of The Pas is offering a massive tax relief to the owners of a nearby paper mill in an effort to stave off a closure that could cripple the town’s economy. “We can’t just sort of sit back and see how things fall out, so we are going to take the lead and we are literally…
It looks like a giant waterbed, covering an area the size of four football fields and surrounded by a chest-high concrete perimeter wall. As Donald Trump might say, it’s huge! And like the wackadoodle U.S. presidential candidate, this massive vessel, constructed next to West Fraser Timber’s Slave Lake Pulp mill, is also full of gas. In this case, biogas. Technically, the big waterbed is known…