Fallout of Merritt mill closure is 'devastating,' says company VP

The recent closure of Merritt’s last standing mill has been described as a “devastating” hit to the community.

In June, AP Group announced the closure of its Aspen Planers mill in the small town.

The closure joins Canfor’s closure of a sawmill in Bear Lake, a production line in Prince George and the suspension of an investment in Houston announced in May.

Bruce Rose, with AP Group, sat down with NowMedia to discuss the impacts of the closure and what he thinks needs to be done to fix the problems facing BC’s forestry sector.

Rose confirmed that roughly a hundred direct jobs have been affected by the mill closure.

It is unknown how long the closure will last and whether or not it is permanent.

“(With) the market realities of where we're at in British Columbia in terms of log prices, access to logs, which is related to getting cutting permits and all those things relative to the pricing of lumber products, we just can't make a go of it,” Rose told NowMedia, adding that the Merritt mill has faced “significant” monthly losses.

Although AP Group has other facilities in Savona and Lillooet and even a biomass plant in Merritt, Rose says the impacts to former employees and the community will be significant.

“That is the last mill that is there and standing,” Rose said, adding the company had a number of contractors in Merritt who had worked with Aspen Planers for over 50 years.

He also pointed to partnerships with Tolko Industries before they closed their mill in 2018.

“It's just very sad for people, for all of these rural, forest dependent communities, it's devastating. And the industry doesn't need to be like this,” he told NowMedia.

“All these economic opportunities just vanish. And it's just a very, very sad state of affairs.”

Rose said he would echo similar concerns brought up by Canfor, who blamed a shortage of fibre for the curtailment at the pulp mill in Prince George but also policy and regulations.

He pointed to Alberta’s “booming” forestry industry, which he estimated to be “about 60%” of the size of BC’s, but said BC’s industry continues to lose thousands of jobs per year.

The BC Council of Forest Industries told NowMedia the industry lost about 10,000 jobs in 2023.

BC’s Ministry of Forests told NowMedia the closure in Merritt was due to the “many challenges” facing the forestry industry in North America, including low market prices for lumber and high interest rates but they wouldn’t “leave people behind to fend for themselves.”

However, Rose isn’t convinced the government’s so-called “community transition programs,” which are meant to help impacted mill employees find different work, would be of any real help.

“We hear all sorts of messages from the government about trend forestry transition and community transition programs, but those things don't do anything to help replace the type of income. There aren't other similar economic opportunities,” Rose said.

“The really sad part of it all, is the social effects. (With) all these jobs gone, like forget the economic pieces, but the social ills and social impact in the communities is very evident and it's a very, very difficult situation.”

NowMedia asked Rose what he thought the forestry industry needed and what forestry investors needed to get certainty.

He said there needed to be an “adequate and regular” supply of economic fibre and the timber pricing system, which he called broken, needed to be fixed.

He said there also needed to be more “policy consistency” governing when companies can get on the land to harvest timber.

“Public policy by nature is always a matter of trade offs. This government has made a priority, and continues to make a priority, out of conservation,” Rose said, adding that he recalls ministers saying they’ll see how the industry fits in with conservation plans.

“And that is the issue that we're dealing with and (it’s) one of the prime reasons with all this uncertainty.”

Rose said there also needed to be “balanced” conversations about environmental, economic, social and forestry industry issues with a focus on promoting better forest stewardship.

As for the 100 or so employees without work, Rose said “it’s a real mixed bag” that included a few who were offered and accepted jobs in Savona while others are considering retirement.

He said the local union has not had any more success that AP Group has, “or anybody else, voicing their concerns in an industry where something is clearly broken.”

“It has been cratering, it's a catastrophe,” Rose said.