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WEDNESDAY, June 17, 2015
VOL. 38 NO. 16 $1.30 inc. GST
Fort St. James mill to close permanently
Michele Taylor photo
The Tl’oh Forest Products finger-joint plant will cease operations on July 31 the closure will mean the loss of 43 jobs, 40 hourly workers and 3 staff, 39 of those employed by the mill are band members.
Uncertain future sees Tl’oh Forest Products handing down working notices to more than 40 employees MICHELE TAYLOR Caledonia Courier
The Tl’oh Forest Products finger-joint plant will cease operations on July 31. The closure of the mill, which operates in partnership between Apollo Forest Products and the Nak’azdli First Nation, will mean the loss of 43 jobs, 39 of those employed by the mill
are band members. Chief Fred Sam said meetings were held yesterday, June 9, between Nak’azdli First Nation and the Sinclair group. He added meetings also took place with the mill’s employees to discuss employment strategies and explain how the shutdown will proceed. “Yesterday we had a short meeting with the groups … the Sinclair
Group and Leonard Thomas had a meeting with the employees,” Sam said. Sam said the groups are going to hopefully figure things out and that the affected employees can get some placements within Apollo and potentially Conifex may take some placements. “I am looking at the bio-energy plant too … maybe there needs to
be some retraining for some too and we can work with the province on that,” he said. “Some are doing millwright work and can connect with the mine. Some have been there for many years … some have been there from the beginning. They’ve been so dedicated to the mill and we just really appreciate that from them.” Tl’oh president Leonard Thom-
as said there were some expectations by employees that something was coming down. He said the company’s trying to address a lot of that retraining through its HR department. He said he hopes employees look at it as an opportunity to open new doors. “HR is talking to each and every
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