The Mayor of Clearwater says it’s a tough day for the North Thompson Valley, with the loss of 178 jobs at the Vavenby mill.

The closure was announced yesterday, in addition to the sale of Canfor’s timber cutting rights to Interfor.

Merlin Blackwell says a lot of people in the area sensed something was coming.

“We were expecting at least a shutdown or a loss of a shift or two,” he said. “Considering the conditions of the timber market and the timber supply and all sorts of different factors coming together, but actually losing the mills and having the cuts switch over to Interfor is not the optimum result for Clearwater and for Vavenby.”

Blackwell adds a number of people who lost their jobs were at or near retirement, and so he’s not anticipating a mass exodus of people leaving looking for work. But that said, he’s hoping to keep some of the keep of the 178 people who lost their job in the area.

“Everybody is connected to the forest industry and its probably a good solid 40 per cent of our economy on any given day so it’s going to be quite a shift to see what the future will bring for us,” Blackwell added.

“Last time we had a downturn, we had the ability for people to go and work in the oil sector, but the oil sector isn’t strong right now either, nor are there a ton of mill opportunities as well.”

As for the future of the mill site and the Clearwater area?

“Because there is a such a diverse timber basket in the North Thompson – cedar, fir, hemlock, everything basically is still out there in volume that we could still get some smaller, specialty operation come in and start up to take on some of those niche products that are still required out in the world.”

Blackwell adds forestry has been part of people’s lives for over a century, and the closure of the last major mill in the area is the end of an era.