Approximately 60 employees at Tolko Industries Lakeview operation in Williams Lake will be temporarily laid off.
Media Spokesperson Chris Downey said in an email response, on Tuesday, workers were informed that the company will be temporarily moving from two shifts to a single 50-hour shift as of February 19.
This shift change will impact both the sawmill and the planer.
He said this shift reduction is a result of the high cost of operating in BC as has been well documented across the industry, economic conditions continue to remain challenging in the province.
Downey said the potential for approximately 80 million board feet of lumber will be removed from annual production and Tolko expects that the shift reduction will be evaluated regularly going forward to determine if any changes are required.
“We will continue to support our employees through this difficult time.” Downey said, “This is not ideal. From a people and production perspective, we would always rather be fully operational.”
– Files from Pat Matthews, My Cariboo Now