The forestry company will shut down its Deersdale mill, near Juniper, on Oct. 28, throwing 65 unionized employees and eight staff members out of work.
"It's not a permanent closure, it's an indefinite closure so the employees involved would be on layoff. Where we have positions to fill in our other operations and a skill set that those employees would have that would match those jobs, we'd be looking to place them there, but at this point it is a layoff for those people."
Mary Keith said the company is closing the Deersdale mill because it can't get enough wood to supply it.
The company is diverting the wood it has available to mills in Chipman and Sussex.
Deersdale Closure (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/10/12/nb-irving-deersdale-sawmill-closure.html)
Output Volume: 80 million fbm/year.
Compared to it's largest sawmill in St. Leonard, New Brunswick with annual output Volume of 260 million fbm/year.
Can't get enough wood to saw? Maybe they are not paying enough to the loggers?
means more wood from maine going to st leonard !
It's just part of the Irving tactic to have their way with the government over wood supply from crown. Hold jobs as hostage. They aren't getting much private wood because they don't want to pay a man a decent wage. They also have all kinds of freehold in the area untouched. As I told one fella recently, they have never bought a stick of wood from me or gave me a job, so I'm not out anything if they never open. ;)
Dave Palmer, the general manager of the York-Sunbury-Charlotte Forest Products Marketing Board, said the company is using the closure as a bargaining tactic.
"I think the timing of the closure, it puts additional pressure on the government to give the mill more wood," Palmer said.
"This closure, I believe, is simply part of a larger pattern of consolidation."
The forest industry has been putting pressure on politicians for months in the lead up to the province's release of its next five-year forest management plan, which sets the annual allowable cut for forest companies.
CBC News article (http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/story/2011/10/14/nb-irving-deersdale-mill-private-woodlots-1144.html)
Irving announced it's temporary shutdown of it's Keswick and Doaktown sawmills. Poor markets and the high Canadian dollar have affected exports. The mills will continue to buy wood and harvest off crown lands. The mills are expected to reopen in February and late April.