e I.W.A. CANADA Local 1-424 member and FFI Site Two chairman Alf Wilkins poses for photo outside the log deck. = wie Donahue is ready to invest in northern Finlay mills year and a half ago it looked like one of the two Finlay Forest Products mills in MacKenzie, B.C., the older “FFI Site One” operation might lose its planer oper- ation. The original planer had been upgraded over the years, but was not as productive as its newer, counter- part “FFI Site Two” which had a more productive planer, yet that pro- duced less lumber. Today it looks like both mills will remain operational for the foresee- able future and the company, now 100% owned by Donohue Inc. of Mon- treal, is making some tidy profits (in August the company bought Slocan Forest Products Ltd.’s 49.9% interest in the operations for some $80 mil- lion). Donahue is investing over $18 million modernizing the facilities. “That’s good for our membership in both operations and is reflective of the hard work they have done to keep the mills viable,” said Local 1-424 President Fred Carroll. “The Finlay operations have made it through the downturns in the lumber market, and are on the upswing again. The only thing that can hold them back is wood supply and access the U.S. mar- ket under the Canada - U.S. Soft- wood quota lumber agreement.” As part of the licence transfer to Donohue and in order to preserve the full annual allowable cut and not let 5% be taken away for Small Busi- ness, the company has proposed to build a $3.1 million value-added facility near the FFI Site One in the Spring of 2000 to convert dimension lumber into specialty products. That proposal, which is currently in front of the government is sup- ported by the local union. Business agent Neil Meagher, said the local has written letters of sup- port for the value-added proposal. “We think it’s a good aes and the government should approve it so work can get underway to create additional real, sustainable jobs in the community,” said Brother Meagher. The proposal says 33 jobs will be created when the facility opens and an additional 18 jobs could be created as markets develop. It will also pro-- vide some additional jobs for local Native bands to harvest and mill hardwood dunnage into products like spacers and lumber pile bottoms. MacKenzie is a forest-industry dependent town, about a 2-1/2 hour drive north of Prince George. It Both Finlay operations made it through the downturns in the lumber market and are on the upswing again. sprang up in the 1960’s with the flooding of the man-made Williston Lake and the Bennett Dam in Hud- son Hope. When the dam was built, millions of cubic meters of timber were lev- elled, and some of it was put through a sawmill in MacKenzie, then owned by Cattermole Timber. Most of the flooded areas were cleared by giant tree crushers, one of which is rumoured to be at the bot- tom of Williston Lake. The community of 6,000 has about 2,000 direct industry jobs, about 150- 180 of which are in Site One and 100- 120 are in Site Two. In addition to the two Finlay sawmills and planer mills, Donahue acquired Slocan interests in a pulp mill anda modern paper mill. There is also a pulp mill in town owned by Fletcher Chal- lenge. The Finlay pulp and paper mills are certified to the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union and the Pulp, Paper and Woodwork- ers of Canada, while the Fletcher mill is also certified to the CEP. Both Finlay mills process about 1.2 million cubic meters of timber on an annual basis, 1.15 million of which comes from a volume-based forest licence in the MacKenzie | Timber wc? Supply Arca. The TSA is one of the province’s largest with over 3 million hectares stretching from the McLeod Lake area in the south, east to Chetwynd and north to the Fort Nel- son Forest District. The logs come in mostly full-length Continued on page thirty-one ¢ At the green end of Site One sawmill is union member Bernd Musold. ¢ Local union member Rob Allen is a steward for Lucas and Sons Trucking. 30/LUMBERWORKER/DECEMBER, 1999 Re ene eS a