The Norampac containerboard mill in Burnaby is shutting down by Dec. 1, according to a press release from parent company Cascades Inc.
The closure means 100 workers will lose their jobs.
Dan Bergsma, the spokesperson for CEP Local 1129 - the union representing the mill workers - went to visit the mill at 8255 Wiggins St. on Wednesday, the day after the closure was announced.
"At this point they're still in shock, quite frankly," he said. "Right now the plan going forward is to meet with the company tomorrow (Thursday) and the next day, and start a series of conversations about how it will be done."
The discussions will cover what's available to the employees for retraining, how employment insurance would work, and the steps to be taken to close down the mill.
To help, the union will be providing its members with as much information as possible on issues such as pensions and other job opportunities, he said.
The workers are highly skilled, he added, and will be wanted elsewhere, the only problem is most of those opportunities are not located near Burnaby.
That would mean displacement, with workers having to move, taking all of their contributions to the Burnaby community with them, Bergsma pointed out.
"We wouldn't be complete without mentioning what a tragedy it is," he said. "The communities are suffering here, too.
"We've known it's been struggling for some period of time," Bergsma said of the plant.
Norampac said last year that it was planning to close the mill at some point but was not specific about whether it would be within a year or three years, according to Bergsma.
"Their long-term plans didn't include this plant, so it wasn't a complete surprise," he said. "But the workers were still hopeful until the end that by keeping production rates up and doing all they were doing that they could run for a period of time, or potentially run for a long time."
The high price of recycled fibre, higher labour costs at the Burnaby plant than at other operations, and the high Canadian dollar left the company no choice but to close the plant, Cascades communications vice-president Hubert Bolduc said.
The Burnaby plant, which is within Cascades' Norampac division, produces linerboard from 100 per cent recycled fibre, and heavy demand from China has squeezed the supply, driving prices up.
"Fibre is a very big component of our costs. We are the biggest consumer of recycled fibre in Canada and the biggest collector of recycled fibre," Bolduc said. "Fibre cost has gone from its lowest level two years ago at $25 a tonne to almost $200 a tonne today. That's a huge increase in fibre costs. It's something we are facing across Canada."
Labour costs, Bolduc said, are more expensive compared to costs in other areas, particularly the U.S., where Cascades operates. Further, he said the Burnaby plant is the smallest operation within the group, pushing labour costs per unit up. It has an annual capacity of 116,000 tonnes.
The Canadian dollar is the third factor, he said.
The Burnaby mill produces linerboard, which is used for the outer and inner surfaces of corrugated cardboard boxes. Production from the plant is to be transferred to plants in Ontario and the eastern United States.
Norampac also operates a plant in Richmond, but Bolduc said it does not make the same type of product so production cannot be transferred there.
