2 lumber mills in B.C.’s Interior to resume operations

Two lumber mills in B.C.’s Interior will soon be back to full capacity after undergoing temporary curtailments earlier this year.

This week, Tolko Industries announced that its lumber divisions in Armstrong (Okanagan) and Soda Creek (Cariboo) will be resuming operations on Monday, March 6.

On Dec. 28, Vernon-based Tolko announced that the two mills would begin downtime on Jan. 2, due to a lack of available fibre and weak markets.

“This downtime will affect over 350 of our employees in these operations. We do not make these decisions without a lot of consideration,” Troy Connolly, vice-president of sold wood for Tolko, said at the time.

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“We have an extremely committed workforce at these locations whose families and communities rely on Tolko. We will continue to support our employees during this challenging time.”

The curtailment — which Tolko said would reduce production by around 35 million board feet of stud lumber — affected around 165 employees in Armstrong and 180 at Soda Creek, which is located near Williams Lake.

Starting next week, Tolko says the planer at each location will run a single shift for the first week to build up inventory, and that both mills should be back to full production the following week.

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