A sawmill in Miramichi, N.B. is shutting down until a certain type of wood can be delivered.
While the 115 workers at Miramichi Lumber Products Inc. remain optimistic about the mill reopening, there are no guarantees.
“It’s not a good day for any of us. We don’t know what our future is going to be like,” says millworker Charles Beaudin. “We’re just fighting because we want work.”
Operators say the mill cannot keep operating because it’s not getting enough of the Crown wood it needs to survive.
“We’re a saw log mill, a random length mill, and we need saw logs, not studwoods, to run our mill,” says Hal Raper, chief financial officer of Miramichi Lumber Products Inc.
Natural Resources Minister Bruce Northrup said in a statement that the company should harvest what’s left of its Crown wood allocation.
The mill had already been closed for more than year before it reopened just two months ago. Now it could be closed for two or three weeks, or maybe even longer.
“It’s cautiously optimistic right now that things are going to change,” says Miramichi Mayor Gerry Cormier.
He says meetings between the company and the province may have failed to reach a resolution but that talks will continue.
“I’m very optimistic that with the working going on behind the scenes, that the mill will reopen.”
But millworkers say their optimism is being overshadowed by feelings of uncertainty.
“A lot of people don’t have enough for unemployment and they’re just going to do without,” says Beaudin. “We need to survive. We need to feed our families, but right now everything is up in the air and it’s very uncertain.”
With files from CTV Atlantic's Nick Moore
