The TNRD Vavenby director says workers at the local mill are concerned because of another temporary shutdown.

Canfor is shutting down a number of mills across the province for a week on Monday because of low lumber prices and high log costs.

Carol Schafer says there have been numerous recent shutdowns at the Vavenby mill.

“People need an income to live and if this continues on like it is, every month or thereabouts, you are going to see people going on and looking for jobs in other places where they can have a steady income,” she said.

The company is hoping the shutdown will reduce their production output by approximately 100 million board feet.

Schafer is hoping this will be the last shutdown at the mill for the foreseeable future.

“We were shutdown for three Friday’s in November and December, then we were shutdown between Christmas and New Year’s and then we were shutdown for another week, and then the six weeks [in February and March], and now we are into another week,” she noted.

“It makes people weary about what’s going to happen in the future.”

Schafer pointed out that if people end up moving away for work, it will impact schools and businesses in Vavenby.

“We don’t know what Canfor does. They will tell us as time goes on,” she said. “If the cost doesn’t go down, I’m sure there’s going to be more shutdowns, which is making a lot of people nervous.”

The only unaffected mill is the WynnWood mill near Creston, while the mill in Mackenzie will be shutdown another week in May.

Most of Canfor’s 13 sawmills in B.C. are in the Interior, and the closure is expected to affect over 2,000 hourly employees province wide.