Roughly 350 people will be out of work as forestry company Domtar announces the permanent closure of its mill in Crofton, B.C.
Roughly 350 people will be out of work as forestry company Domtar announces the permanent closure of its mill in Crofton, B.C.
Mirroring what happened in Ontario years ago. Used to be that northeastern Ontario had a bunch of mills. Now there’s only Kapuskasing left, and they’re not really viable—by my understanding, they’ve been hanging on by their fingernails due to being mostly employee-owned and so not having to do more than break even, but they’ve now had to approach the government for a bailout, and their future seems doubtful. The next-to-last was Espanola, which closed down a couple of years ago now.
There’s still a few mills up the coast, but another one closes every couple years.
The owners are saying they dont have enough wood fibre to keep it going.
I suspect the truth has more to do with money than wood fibre supply (I mean, you can truck wood chips in, if it’s profitable enough). These days, the single largest pulp and paper producer in the world is China. They’re difficult to compete with on product price.