Conifex Sawmill Closure Leads to Financial Crisis in Fort St. James

The announced state of local financial crisis will be in place for a period of 30 days until midnight of August 15, 2019, unless cancelled by the mayor.

SEATTLE (Scrap Monster): The B.C Town of Fort St. James has declared a state of local financial crisis, following the closure of operations further to sale of Conifex Timber sawmill, which had been the town’s major employer.

According to declaration issued by Fort St. James, the announced state of local financial crisis will be in place for a period of 30 days until midnight of August 15, 2019, unless cancelled by the mayor. The declaration comes less than a month after Conifex Timber announced the deal to sell its saw mill to Hampton Lumber.

Further, the declaration orders its employees, servants and agents to do all the acts and implement all the procedures that are considered necessary to prevent or alleviate the effects of the local crisis. The District has also listed out the resources available for people affected by the crisis.

A job and service fair will run at Kwah Hall from 10.30 AM until 2.00 PM on July 31^st, in order to help affected sawmill workers to transition to new employment and link them to various support services. Last week, the municipality had set up a community transitioning meeting, which focused on various issues faced by workers.

Meantime, Steve Zika, CEO, Hampton Lumber stated that the company is committed to build a new mill in Fort St. James. However, he declined to mention any timeline. Although current economic conditions are challenging, the long-term outlook for Canadian lumber looks promising, he added.

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