Category Archives: Employment

It has been more than two months now since the Babine Forest Products sawmill in Burns Lake, British Columbia was lost in an explosion and subsequent fire.

Since then, roughly half of the mill’s 250 employees have been able to find other employment – some at other forestry and mining operations in the area.

The government of British Columbia is hoping to help find work for the other half of the employees. The government has held job fairs to help find temporary work and projects for some of the unemployed. Some of the temporary positions are related to recently announced highway upgrades announced for the area.

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Doug Murray, general manager Resolute Forest Products in Thunder Bay, Ontario said he is expecting to hire at least 300 skilled trades-people in the coming years.

Upcoming jobs:

• 90 jobs when the Ignace sawmill reopens in late 2013 or early 2014
• 80 jobs will be created under the $100 million capital investment the company intends to make in Northwestern Ontario between now and 2017
• More jobs at a planned sawmill expansion in Thunder Bay
• Jobs at a condensing turbine project that should be ready to start up by the fall
• 80% of its workforce is expected to retire over the next 3-4 years

Murray says the forest industry isn’t dead.

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Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership (CPLP) has entered into a strategic partnership with the College of New Caledonia (CNC) in British Columbia.

The agreement means the College of New Caledonia will build on its existing strong training partnership to become “the College of Choice” for trades and technology training for Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership employees. “This agreement will create new programs for future students, and help us fill even more of our existing classrooms,” said CNC President John Bowman. “It will also give our students the specific training that one of the region’s largest, well-paying employers wants. While we can’t guarantee our students will get jobs with CPLP, the opportunities will definitely be there like never before.”

Canfor Pulp Limited Partnership President and CEO, Joe Nemeth, pointed out the agreement will not only benefit CNC students looking for careers, but CPLP’s 1,150 employees who want to expand and improve their skills, training and career opportunities within the organization. “This agreement shows we believe in the future of our employees and want to provide them with opportunities for life-long learning and growth,” Nemeth said. “Education is the greatest investment we can make in our people and in the future of northern B.C.”

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Last summer, an investigation found that Khaira Enterprises Ltd.‘s silviculture camps in Golden, Revelstoke, Texada Island, Powell River, Salmon Arm and Kamloops, British Columbia were imposing poor living and working conditions on its workers.

Early this year, the B.C. Employment Standards Branch ordered Khaira Enterprises to pay its workers unpaid wages and interest of $236,500 and issued a penalty of $3,500. The company, and several of the workers, have appealed this decision.

The workers, mostly of African origin, were living in squalid conditions – working 15-hour days, sleeping in unventilated shipping containers – without adequate food, clean water or toilets.

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J.D. Irving is looking to hire 200 workers in New Brunswick, and with the cooperation of the provincial government, the company will be covering the costs of training the new workers.

The company is looking for harvesting-equipment operators, harvesting contractors, truck drivers and truck owner-operators.

Training will be provided at no cost to the chosen candidates.

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Thunder Bay‘s AbitibiBowater sawmill will soon have 50 new jobs thanks to an $8 million investment from the company’s board of directors.

With good news coming from the sawmill lately, the board of directors are investing money to increase the mill’s production capacity through equipment upgrades. The production capacity will be increased from 265 million board feet of stud dimension lumber per year to 300 million board feet.

Recently, the province of Ontario granted the sawmill 220,000 cubic metres of wood through the province’s wood supply competition. On Thursday, the mill celebrated reaching 500,000 hours without a recordable injury.

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The NorSask sawmill in Meadow Lake, Saskatchewan is in the process of hiring for 15 – 20 positions when it re-starts next week.

NorSask Forest Products stopped operating the mill in March, 2009 due to the poor U.S. housing market. With a steadily improving market, the company has decided to restart operations at the sawmill on March 21.

All 40 laid off workers have been invited back, however some have moved on to other jobs, creating the shortage of workers.

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It seems that forestry employment numbers bottomed out last year in British Columbia and may now be making a rebound.

Here are some forestry job stats from British Columbia:

2005 – 79,700

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Ainsworth Lumber Co. Ltd. has reported a net income of $15.7 million in its first quarter compared to a net loss of $34.0 million in the first quarter of 2009.

Ainsworth President and CEO Rick Huff said, “The first quarter of 2010 was marked by improving financial performance for Ainsworth. With the changes we made to the business in 2009, we entered 2010 lean, focused and well positioned to benefit from the rise in OSB prices during the first three months of the year.”

“We are continuing to execute on the strategic plan we developed in 2009. This plan advances our ability to deliver innovative value-added products, increases the geographic diversity of our sales, positions the Company well for future growth, and supports our commitment to managing our cash responsibly while operating safely and efficiently,” added Mr. Huff.

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The Canadian Press is reporting that tree planting jobs may be scarce this year.

In fact, they begin their article with “A summer job for students that has become as iconic as the loon and beaver may be going the way of the $2 bill.”

They are blaming the decline on a slack U.S. housing market and pine beetle damage to West Coast forests.

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