Some residents of the Ghost Valley, west of Cochrane, are upset that logging trucks have been granted permission to use local roads to haul timber. “The road use decision is a stinging disappointment in a series of disappointments for the community,” said resident Sharon MacDonald. Spray Lakes Sawmills has cleared regulatory hurdles with the Bighorn municipal district to…

The union is decrying the closing of the Canal Flats sawmill, which will officially close up after nearly 100 years of operation in the Columbia Valley in various forms. According to Doug Singer, the president of the United Steelworkers Local 1-405, the union members actually ran the last log and boards through in late September…

The provincial government’s approval of clearcutting in a popular recreational area west of Calgary has raised the ire of local residents who fear the move could result in large fluctuations in water levels and potential flooding. Spray Lakes Sawmills has been authorized to cut a nine square kilometre section of land in the south Ghost…

EACOM Timber Corporation is spending $2.8 million on increased automation at its Timmins sawmill. The company is putting in place a new lumber grading dystem, which will determine the grade of each piece of lumber faster and more accurately than human workers. “The job (when done by humans) demands high concentration because the piece goes…

What was to be a routine maintenance shutdown for the Chetwynd Mechanical Pulp Mill in northeastern B.C. will now be a longer closure because of poor market conditions. The mill had only reopened in the spring with a $50-million upgrade, after Paper Excellence Canada purchased the facility in 2014. In a news release, Paper Excellence…

The United States Department of Commerce will announce Wednesday afternoon whether it will uphold a 20.33 per cent tariff on imports from Port Hawkesbury Paper LP. The ruling has the ability to significantly affect the competitiveness of the Point Tupper mill’s product in its largest market. It won’t just reverberate through northern Nova Scotia, where…

One of our Kootenay communities recently received a massive blow, affecting not just the Village of Canal Flats, but also workers throughout the area.  The closure of the mill, the community’s biggest employer, will be devastating. There has been a mill in Canal Flats for more than 100 years, using wood from the forests that…

Port Hawkesbury Paper’s old newsprint building will be torn down as the company moves forward with other ventures, including a proposed sugar extraction plant. Company spokesman Marc Dube said there’s no reason to keep the shop because there has been no turnaround in the declining newsprint market. “Every paper expert would be quick to tell…

Coun. Don Cody suggests that more can be done to reignite the mill. It’s been almost two years since Paper Excellence provided the last public update about the Prince Albert Pulp Mill’s future. At the time, they estimated that the mill would be developing fluff pulp by the summer of 2014 — a target that…

Reactions continue to pour in to the news that the Canal Flats saw mill will close permanently in early November. On Wednesday, Canfor announced the permanent closure of the mill effective Nov. 9, 2015, which will impact roughly 80 jobs. The USW Local 1-405 immediately decried the announcement, as president Doug Singer noting that the…