Howe Sound’s 400 Jobs Are Another Warning The NDP’s Forest Plan Is Failing
Domtar’s Howe Sound and Bayview Fibre shutdown notice is not an isolated headline. It is another mill-town alarm after years of warnings from B.C.’s forest sector.
Another B.C. mill community has been told to brace for job loss, and the NDP’s answer still sounds like a meeting schedule.
CBC News reports Domtar announced the “indefinite idling” of operations at Howe Sound Pulp and Paper in Port Mellon on August 20, with employees told at a town hall at the site. Domtar also said the Bayview Fibre chipping facility will be idled. The company says approximately 400 employees are affected.
That is not an abstract sector adjustment. It is hundreds of paycheques, mortgages, apprenticeships, contractors and local businesses suddenly facing a deadline. CBC interviewed Andrew Appleton, a tugboat captain who has worked at the mill for 22 years. He said workers were in shock and had been told their last day will be October 19.
Domtar’s explanation is blunt. CBC reported company president Luc Thériault cited reduced demand from Asia, sustained poor global pulp pricing and a decline in affordable domestic fibre. The Canadian Press report carried by NanaimoNewsNOW added that Domtar says it has spent $500 million since purchasing the mill in 2010 and building the fibre facility, but the business could not overcome those market and fibre conditions.
Nobody should pretend Victoria controls every global pulp price. It does not. But government is responsible for the policy environment, the fibre framework, permitting, competitiveness and the credibility of its emergency response when a pillar employer goes down. On that score, the pattern is becoming impossible to dismiss.
Domtar had already announced the end of operations at Crofton, affecting about 350 employees. Canfor announced the permanent closure of its Northwood pulp mill in Prince George last month. Quesnel has faced curtailment. Now Howe Sound and Bayview Fibre join the list. Each announcement has its own company balance sheet, but together they describe a province where the forest economy is not merely “transitioning.” It is shedding real jobs in real towns.
Unifor’s language should alarm any government that claims to stand with workers. CBC reported national president Lana Payne called the Howe Sound shutdown evidence of a deepening forestry-sector crisis and demanded immediate action from the provincial and federal governments. The CP report said Unifor warned collapse is around the corner if governments do not act.
Forests Minister Ravi Parmar responded with sympathy, worker supports and a promise to work through a cross-government working group to identify practical, long-term solutions. Supports matter. Mental-health and income supports matter. But workers are entitled to ask why the long-term solution keeps arriving after the town hall, after the shutdown notice, after another gate is about to go dark.
The question for David Eby is simple: what did the NDP’s forest policy actually prevent? If the answer is another working group after 400 more workers are hit, British Columbians should call that what it is — not a plan, but an admission that the plan was missing when it mattered.