Brink Forest Products is executing a three-week shut down at its Prince George, Vanderhoof and Houston sawmills.
CEO John Brink told Vista Radio there are a trio of reasons for the temporary shut down.
“We have paid duties since 2017 to the tune of 80-million dollars from our companies. The reasons are in public forest policies in B.C., a lack of access to fibre and then on top of all of that duties through the United States.”
“Now, we are to the point where we can no longer compete or continue under the current circumstance. We will go down temporarily starting on December the 11th until the 6th of January where we will re-evaluate and figure out how we go forward.”
Brink noted this is just the second time in the company’s history, they have to make such a tough decision.
“We only slowed down once and that is when the river flooded back in 2008 for about three months otherwise we have been running steadily. Gradually in the last six months, we have reduced our operations to about 25% of the volume.”
The temporary closure impacts between 75 and 80 workers.
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