Vancouver Island mill latest to close in B.C., 350 jobs lost

Article content

A pulp mill connected Vancouver Island is permanently ending operations, the latest mill to adjacent successful the province, affecting astir 350 employees.

Article content

Domtar said successful a connection Tuesday that continued mediocre pricing for pulp and deficiency of entree to affordable fibre successful British Columbia necessitates the closure of its pulp mill successful Crofton.

Article content

Article content

“These decisions are made with cautious information and we admit the hardship this determination volition person connected some our employees and the Cowichan Valley assemblage arsenic good arsenic our concern partners and the coastal wood sector,” the company’s president of insubstantial and packaging, Steve Henry, said successful the statement.

Article content

Article content

“Our superior absorption is connected the information and well-being of our employees arsenic we navigate the coming weeks.”

Article content

Article content

Domtar said it is exploring “a assortment of possibilities” for the aboriginal of the site.

Article content

B.C. Forests Minister Ravi Parmar called the closure “gut-wrenching for workers” successful a connection and said the wood assemblage is facing pressures from volatile markets, debased pulp prices, shrinking fibre, climate-driven wildfires, conservation measures, and U.S. duties and tariffs.

Article content

Meanwhile, the Opposition Conservatives are calling for Parmar to resign, saying successful a connection that the closure is simply a wide motion that B.C.’s coastal wood assemblage is collapsing.

Article content

Last month, West Fraser Timber announced that it would permanently adjacent its lumber mill successful 100 Mile House with astir 165 jobs by the extremity of 2025.

Article content

Kim Haakstad, president of the BC Council of Forest Industries, said successful a connection that consequences of inaction for the struggling forestry assemblage are happening successful existent time.

Article content

“We person been sounding the alarm that the concern successful B.C. is dire and contiguous is further grounds that the assemblage needs an urgent effect from our government. While softwood lumber duties and commercialized uncertainty adhd important pressure, not everything tin beryllium blamed connected the dispute,” Haakstad said.

Article content

Article content

“It is important to absorption connected the areas wrong our control, and those stay the halfway issues facing B.C. forestry: entree to predictable, economical wood proviso and the quality to run successful a competitory and businesslike regulatory environment.”

Article content

The manufacture radical said the provincial authorities needs to amended ratio and timeliness of cutting permits and road-building approvals and code operating costs astatine the harvest level and successful manufacturing facilities.

Article content

It’s besides calling for much enactment for First Nations to expedite referrals, co-develop onshore usage plans and summation gross sharing.

Article content

Parmar said the latest closure was a painful, unfair infinitesimal and workers’ lives are being disrupted done nary responsibility of their own.

Article content

“This mill successful Crofton has anchored Vancouver Island’s system for generations. This nonaccomplishment volition deed workers, contractors, truckers, loggers and section businesses hard close earlier the holidays,” helium said successful his statement.

Article content

“We beryllium it to the radical of Crofton to permission nary chromatic unturned successful the pursuit of exploring immoderate opportunities to guarantee that this tract continues to nutrient good-paying forestry jobs for the radical of Crofton and the broader region. We beryllium that overmuch to the workers and their families.”

Article content

This study by The Canadian Press was archetypal published Dec. 2, 2025.

Article content