More forestry mills close in Quebec, Ontario

Quebec's forestry industry suffered another shake-up Wednesday as Montreal-based Domtar announced it was indefinitely extending the temporary closure of three sawmills in the province's northwestern Abitibi-Tmiscamingue region.

A Domtar sawmill in Nairn, Ont. (near Sudbury) will also shut down permanently, Domtar officials confirmed.

About 950 employees at the four mills will lose their jobs this October.

• 100 workers at the Matagami sawmill (QC), which will close Oct. 27
• 125 workers at the Val d'Or sawmill (QC), which will close Oct. 27
• 125 workers at the Lebel-sur-Quevillonsawmill (QC), which will close immediately
• 140 workers at the Nairn sawmill (ON), which will close Oct 13
• 450 forestry workers in both provinces will also be out of work

The company had announced earlier in October that production at the the mills would stop for a short period of time. But Domtar changed its course and shut the plants permanently because of "the pressure of higher timer costs, and lower demand for both lumber and wood chips," said officials in a press release issued Wednesday.

"One the one hand, substantially higher procurement and processing costs for sawlogs have impacted the competitive position of our sawmills in recent years," said Richard Garneau, Domtar's executive vice-president for operations.

"One the other hand, the slowdown in demand has exerted considerable downward pressure on selling prices for wood products in recent months," Garneau said in the release.

The permanent closures come on the heels of another major Quebec forest products companyannouncingit was closing four sawmills because of economic pressure.

Abitibi-Consolidated announced Tuesday it is boarding up four sawmills, which will leave about 380 mill employees and 300 forestry workers without jobs at the following plants:

• Champneuf sawmill in Abitibi-Tmiscamingue
• Saint-Thomas sawmill in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean
• Outardes sawmill in the eastern North Shore region
• Saint-Raymond sawmill near Quebec City

Quebecpremier Jean Charestsaid Wednesday his governmentis preparing an emergency package to help the province's forestry industry, which would include, among other elements, measures to reduce the cost of wood fibre, the raw material used by sawmills.