The mayor of Barriere says he suspects Canfor shutting down in Vavenby will have a greater impact than when his community lost its sawmill.

The Tolko mill in Louis Creek burned down 16 years ago, during the McLure-Barriere wildfire, and was never rebuilt.

Ward Stamer says the workforce managed to recover at the time.

“I think part of it, there was a readjustment on a lot of things. Obviously people moved out of the community and other people moved in, and that sort of thing. But from the contractor perspective and the logging perspective, a lot of that continued because there was a lot of wood still from the fires and a lot of activity going on,” he says.

“Half the people who worked at the Louis Creek mill, they lived in Kamloops. They didn’t live in Barriere, so they didn’t have houses here, they didn’t have kids in school. So the impact is going to be so totally different than it will be in Clearwater and Vavenby, where if they can’t find another full time job up there, then there’s probably a pretty good chance they’re going to have to relocate.”

By next month, the Canfor mill in Vavenby will be closing down which will put the entire staff of 178 people out of work.

Stamer says Barriere will be affecting directly and indirectly in some ways, but not nearly to the same extent as the Clearwater area.

“It’s bad news, but it’s something that we’ve been talking about, and it’s going to continue with the shrinking fibre supply in British Columbia. We’re going to see more and more mills either consolidate or close and it’s going to make it tough on those communities.”