'who will we lose?' mill closure in 100 mile house will have far-reaching impact on entire community
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isabelle harper’s family has already been through the upheaval of one sawmill closure.
it was 2019 and west fraser timber co. decided to shutter its chasm sawmill in central b.c., putting 176 people out of work.
“we had just bought a house, we just started fixing it up and it was going to be our dream home, and we unfortunately had to sell it,” she recalled.
now, five years after her husband managed to secure a transfer to the company’s sawmill in 100 mile house, 54 kilometres north of chasm, and after they had set down roots deep enough to start a family, they are going through it again.
harper’s husband, a lumber yard supervisor and chief power electrician, was handed the bad news thursday. west fraser will close its 100 mile house mill by the end of the year and put 165 employees out of work, adding to the more than 1,000 job losses the industry has seen over the past two years.
“one hundred per cent, it feels like déjà vu,” harper said friday. “i’m a little bit more calm about it this time, just as we’ve been through it before. but it’s still a little harder. … it’s just a lot of, ‘ok, what’s next? what do we do? do we try to sell the house?'”
the loss of young families is one of 100 mile house mayor maureen pinkney’s top concerns, because they are the backbone of services in the small town.
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“each family, one of them might be at the mill, but is the other one a daycare worker? or the other one a nurse? or a doctor?” she said. “who exactly are we going to lose through this?”
the 165 jobs at the mill alone represents almost 10 per cent of the population of 100 mile house.
but pinkney said effects of the closure will likely ripple far beyond the town, when you factor in lost opportunities for logging contractors, equipment suppliers and repair shops.
“honestly, there’s no one in our community — and that’s the extended community of the 20,000 that we serve — who won’t be impacted by this,” pinkney said.
a ‘gut punch’
west fraser cited drooping softwood lumber demand, compounded by higher duties and tariffs that have reached 45 per cent, and a lack of “economically viable timber” as the primary reasons for discontinuing operations. the company said it will also close a mill in augusta, ga.
union official jeff bromley has seen more than 10 mill closures and the loss of more than 1,200 jobs, just among union members alone, since taking over as chair of the united steelworkers’ wood council. but the 100 mile house closure “is a real tough one.”
after west fraser closed its chasm mill in 2019, bromley said he thought the 100 mile house mill would be safer in the middle of the considerable amount of timber tenures that the company holds in the region. now that timber will have to go somewhere else.
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“they made a decision that, based on the amount of timber supply or economic access to it, the best approach would be to close the mill,” he said.
it’s a decision “that workers or folks who have mortgages to pay don’t necessarily understand.”
west fraser announced the decision two weeks after reporting a us$204 million loss in its third-quarter financial results, and said it would take “appropriate action” to size its operations to meet the needs of customers, as well as control costs.
“you think you know the markets and you’re trying to anticipate where it ends or where the bottom is,” bromley said. “and then there’s just another hole that’s presented.”
he added that every mill that closes is “a gut punch.”
b.c. forests minister ravi parmar said in a statement he has spoken to pinkney and united steelworkers union representatives to pledge his government’s support for 100 mile house.
parmar said his government “will never stop fighting for forestry workers and the communities that depend on them.”
it wasn’t that long ago that the community went through something similar.
driving north into 100 mile house on hwy. 97, you can see the stacks of lumber at the west fraser mill across the waters of exeter lake. just east of the facility sits the slowly deteriorating remains of the norbord mill, which was shuttered in 2019.
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that plant was a victim of a timber supply line that became strangled by wildfires and the pine beetle epidemic, making its operation economically unviable. west fraser has said much the same of this recent closure, saying it can’t source timber at an affordable enough price to remain practical.
west fraser bought the norbord property, and had been plans to develop it, but they sold the nearly 200-acre property to tsq̓éscen̓ first nation in 2024.
“that old osb plant was supposed to be developed into a mushroom farm and incorporate some other businesses,” said jamie gauvin, president of the south cariboo chamber of commerce office. “that’s been sitting. so that building, that plant, will probably sit there and do nothing. rot away.”
gauvin moved to 100 mile house in 2016, and bought a business there two years later. she shares pinkney’s view that the mill closure won’t send ripple effects through the community, but more like shock waves.
“i don’t even have the words to say how devastating this is for 100 mile house,” she said, adding the people coming through the door of her business — a tanning salon — have all had “sad faces.”
“we’ve had so many things happen here, from fires, to covid, to mills closing. it’s really tough. … now people have to figure out what’s important. is it important to keep my lights on? is it important to keep food on the table, a roof over my head? there’s going to be some major changes and … you’ve got to pick and choose what you need to do to get by. and it’s not going to look good for 100 mile at all.”
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‘people are going to move’
located 460 km north of vancouver on highway 97, 100 mile house dates back to the early 1860s when it was a stopover for travellers on their way to seek riches during the cariboo gold rush.
today, the town of 2,000 is the service hub for the wider region of the south cariboo, which in recent years has drawn an influx of new residents, including seniors seeking more affordable real estate. gauvin fears that real estate might even get cheaper now, as families will be forced to move, selling their homes at fire-sale prices out of desperation.
“if you have a family (with) a husband who works at the mill, and the wife works somewhere around the community, and their larger income is gone — they’re moving,” she said. “unless there’s other opportunities here — and there really isn’t because that was such a big industry here in 100 mile — people are going to move.”
pinkney said the town will have to work to find ways of replacing the property taxes she expects the town to lose from reassessment of west fraser’s dormant mill site.
she added that her council is bracing for about $1 million in lost revenue from that development, along with recent changes in assessments for pipelines and other utilities that run through the town.
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“so you take that out, and you factor in that we have a large amount of seniors low-income housing here, you can’t pass that on to them,” pinkney said. “so definitely, our first and foremost urgent issue is funding so that we can keep looking after our infrastructure and stay above board.”
cariboo-chilcotin conservative mla lorne doerkson said parmar needs to do more to reduce red tape and set measurable goals to deliver secure fibre access to b.c. mills.
gauvin said the community has felt like it’s been an afterthought when it comes to provincial and federal policies.
“what’s really sad is, i feel like with these smaller communities, we don’t matter. does that make sense? … people think the government is failing them. they’ve been feeling this for a long time now.”
the financial gut punch comes right before the holiday season, with the annual christmas let it glow parade just a week away. gauvin hopes that day will be one of joy and resilience, and not despair.
“knowing a lot of businesses and a lot of people here in 100 mile, we do stay strong. we just need those uplifting people in our community to keep them to stay positive,” she said. “we have to try. because if you are down, it’s not going to help, right?”
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