Babine mill lifts Burns Lake
Lakes District News - December 12, 2012
By Walter Strong
Reprinted with permission from the Lake District News

Reaction to the announcement that Hampton Affiliates will proceed with its rebuild of the Babine Forest Products mill was not all positive, according to some media coverage.

Politicians outside of the provincial Liberal government were quick to question whether or not there was enough timber to support the new mill. Bob Simpson, MLA for Cariboo North, even claimed that the province had inflated its Quesnel timber supply numbers for the sake of creating a positive environment for the Burns Lake mill decision.

The mayor of Smithers went on the CBC to question whether the mill decision would mean less timber supply for other mills in the region, as if the Lakes timber supply should simply remain open for mills everywhere but in Burns Lake.

One national news source chose to run photos of injured workers with its same day coverage of the announcement, and two other news sources, national and provincial, chose to run stories emphasizing the hurt caused by the mill explosion. One even suggested that workers didn’t want to return to a new mill. I received a phone call from a family member in another part of the province who expressed surprise that the mill rebuild “wasn’t really a good thing for Burns Lake”. That’s the picture painted by the media outside the Lakes District.

Why has there been so much effort by the media to turn this announcement into something negative?

From the day the mill rebuild was tentatively announced back in September the major mills in B.C. have been silent. Are they speaking loudly through politicians and media in their own spheres of influence because they don’t want to be seen as protecting their profit from the destruction of a competitor’s mill in Burns Lake?

The provincial Liberals have never shifted from their stated position that, if possible, the mill should be rebuilt. They have proposed changes to timber supply management and have banked on the idea that low-volume timber stands will be financially viable in the years to come. Those changes will extend to other timber supply areas across B.C.

Will local politicians protest when their communities are offered new or extended community forest licenses to manage according to the interests of their own communities?

The Burns Lake decision is at the centre of a political storm as politicians ramp up for a spring election. You can be sure that this decision for Burns Lake will hang like a heavy punching bag in the corner of boxing gym just waiting for anyone to take swings at it for the sake of scoring political points.

It is a decision for Burns Lake, made by the Liberals, Hampton Affiliates, the Village of Burns Lake, the Regional District and First Nations to support a local mill. Will all the timber in the Lakes now go to Hampton? Of course not; it never has. Hampton will still have to compete with other mills just as before. Local license holders have never been bound to sell to Hampton, and they won't be bound to do so in the future.

The Babine Mill rebuild is a carefully thought out plan that will be good for Burns Lake, and good for forestry workers across the region with competitive mills buying logs on an open market.

Good news for Burns Lake as Hampton announces rebuild

Published in the December 12, 2012 issue of Lakes District News:
Uncertainty surrounding mill town decision dispelled; critics line up to take shots at decision

by Walter Strong

On Dec. 5, 2012 Steve Zika, Cheif Executive Officer of Hampton Affiliates, and David Hampton, one of the owners, announced in Burns Lake that the company will proceed with the rebuild of the Babine Forest Products Mill destroyed in an explosion on Jan. 20, 2012.

"The board agreed that we're going to rebuild the sawmill," said Zika.

In response to new forest license arrangements designed to increase timber supply in the Lakes Timber Supply Area announced by province on Sept. 11 in Burns Lake, Hampton Affiliates had agreed to proceed with plans to rebuild the mill on the assumption that the timber supply arrangements described by the province would be finalized by a Dec. 3 meeting of the board of Hampton Affiliates.

The timber supply arrangements required co-operation between the Regional District of Bulkley-Nechako, the Village of Burns Lake and the six First Nations in the area.

"To the board, the question was 'Are the groups committed to working together'?" said Zika.  

"In a world where the pine beetle has taken a lot of the timber supply, you really have to have everybody working together to be successful. It's a risk, but we're comfortable taking it based on the level of support we've seen in the community," he said.

Some foundation work has already been completed at the mill site. New construction is expected to begin by the end of March and the mill should be ready to take timber by early 2014.

"They're pouring the slab today," said Zika. "You'll see a limited amount of activity over the next few months, but you'll see things really pick up at the end of March. We're doing detailed engineering and lining up contractors so that when the weather breaks we'll be ready to go."

The recent decision by WorkSafe BC to forward the findings of workplace safety act violations in its investigation to Crown Counsel for consideration was not taken in a positive light by the hampton board of directors.

"We would like to know what the report says," said Zika. "We'd like to have definitive answers but we don't yet."

Although the details of that report remain secret, Hampton is confident that the new mill will meet the most modern standards of mill safety.

"We're going to put systems in place that ensure the sawmill to be as safe as we can possibly make it," said Hampton.

Hampton Affiliates currently operates the Decker Lake specialty saw mill in Burns Lake, as well as six other mills in the U.S.

"We have worked diligently on improving clean-up routines and dust reduction at our Decker Lake sawmill and at Hampton's other mills in the U.S.," said Zika. "The company is also actively participating with Worksafe and the industry task force, on combustion risks and will incorporate these findings into a new Babine sawmill."

In the days that followed the announcement questions were asked regarding how the new mill would affect timber supply for other mills in the region.

Nechako Lakes member of legislative assembly John Rustad expressed confidence that there was enough timber supply to go around, citing positive results turning up in the recent Quesnel timber supply report. He expects the total net loss of timber supply from the Lakes Timber Supply Area (TSA) to other mills in the region to be around 50 or 60 thousand cubic metres per year.

To the question of whether there was enough wood to keep all the mills going between Vanderhoof and Smithers, Rustad said that people have to understand that it was volume from marginally economic stands that tipped the timber supply in favour of a mill rebuild in Burns Lake, and that same timber supply is available across the region, not only in the Lakes TSA.

“The supply across the Hwy. 16 corridor is going to be tight, but I’m reasonable comfortable with saying that I think there’s enough wood to keep the mills open,” he said. “There will be more competition for logs, but competition is not a bad thing.”