Canfor to close sawmills in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John, B.C.

Logging giant Canfor announced Wednesday it would close its sawmills in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John, B.C., by the end of the year.

It's the latest blow to the beleaguered B.C. forestry sector, which has seen a wave of mill closures over the last few years.

Last year, numbers from Statistics Canada showed B.C. had lost more than 40,000 forest-sector jobs since the early 1990s.

Canfor blamed the mill closures, which it says will affect around 500 employees, on "increasing regulatory complexity, high operating costs and the inability to reliably access economically viable timber."

The company also said recent "punitive" tariff hikes by the U.S. — which saw the country nearly double the duty on softwood lumber imported from Canada — meant carrying on would have put other Canfor operations at risk.

"We are devastated by the decline in our province's foundational forest industry, and we recognize the impact these closures will have on our employees and their families, as well as our First Nations partners, contractors, suppliers, communities and customers," Canfor CEO Don Kayne said in a statement.

"We are committed to supporting our employees and will work with our union partners on an employee transition plan, including severance."

Kayne said the company had lost hundreds of millions of dollars in its B.C. operations in recent years.

"With the dramatic reduction in available timber supply, we will explore opportunities to divest some of our northern B.C. tenure, which may help support other B.C. forest companies facing the same significant challenges in accessing economic fibre," he wrote.

Fort St. John Mayor Lilia Hansen said the city was "deeply shocked and saddened" by Canfor's announcement.

"This news is a significant hit to our community and the families directly affected," she said in a statement.

Brian O'Rourke, the president of United Steelworkers Local 1-2017 in Prince George, B.C., said the job losses would hit hard for Vanderhoof and Fort St. John — communities of around 4,300 people and 21,000 people, respectively.

"In a lot of the smaller rural communities, it's devastating because there are not really transferable jobs within the area," he told CBC News.

O'Rourke pointed a finger for the continued mill closures at the provincial government, saying that logging was still a viable industry in B.C. even amid the continuing issue of access to economically usable wood.