Cranbrook Daily Townsman, March 28, 2013

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THURSDAY MARCH 28, 2013

Kooteay Ice versus Edmonton Oil Kings, Game 4

Cara Luft playing inaugural Lotus Books concert

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Happy Easter

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Tembec sells Skookumchuck mill Vancouver-based Paper Excellence group buys East Kootenay pulp mill for $89 million

SALLY MACDONALD Townsman Staff

The Skookumchuck pulp mill will change ownership within the next three months. Tembec reached an agreement on Tuesday,

March 26 with Vancouver-based Paper Excellence Canada to sell the Northern bleached softwood kraft (NBSK) pulp mill and its related assets and liabilities for $89 million, including

working capital. There are 290 people working at the pulp mill. Skookumchuck was the last mill Tembec operated in the East Kootenay, after it closed its Cranbrook planer mill in

2010, and sold the Canal Flats and Elko mills to Canfor in 2011. Tembec’s president of the Forest Products Group, Dennis Rounsville, resides in Cranbrook, and he said

the sale of Skookumchuck is the end of an era for Tembec’s operations. “It’s good to know our employees will go with the sale. That’s a positive too. In terms of

Skookumchuck in the long term it’s a good thing. They are going to a company that is a pulp producer in this particular market segment and they know their business,” said Rounsville. Tembec still owns 65,000 hectares of land in the East Kootenay, he went on. “I will still oversee the land in the East Kootenay. That is still a significant file for us to deal with. Right now the trees on that land are sold to Canfor and they use them in their sawmills,” said Rounsville. The sale is expected to be finalized in the second quarter of 2013. “This transaction supports the continuing

“It’s good to know our employees will go with the sale. That’s a positive too … They are going to a company that is a pulp producer in this particular market segment and they know their business.” Dennis Rounsville

transformation of the company and the reshaping of its business portfolio,” said Tembec’s CEO James Lopez in a statement to the media.

See TEMBEC , Page 3

Locals want a halt to ‘any-buck season’ Resident hunters are concerned that over-hunting in October is harming mule deer populations BARRY COULTER

SALLY MACDONALD PHOTO

Instructor Bruce Campbell checks the position of a school bus on its way to being righted during a Wreckmaster towing and recovery course at Van Horne Towing in Cranbrook on Wednesday, March 27. See full story on Page 3

While there is a lot of public attention focused on the presence of mule deer in the streets of East Kootenay towns, resident hunters are expressing concerns over diminishing populations of mule deer in the wild. In particular, a petition has been launched locally to put an end to the “any-buck season,”

Good Th ings Happen at Ricky 's!

which has been running in the East Kootenay through the month of October since 2010. As the name implies, an any-buck season allows for the harvesting of any buck, not just “four-points” or more, which is the norm throughout the length of hunting season in the fall.

See PETITION , Page 3

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