Sophie Kuijper Dickson, LJI Journalist
The Commonwealth Plywood sawmill in Rapides des Joachims has plans to shut down operations for an undetermined period beginning on Dec. 19, a decision which will see its 23 employees lose their jobs less than a week before Christmas.
The news comes just under two years after the mill reopened in Jan. 2023, after a near 10-year closure.
In an emailed statement to THE EQUITY, Commonwealth’s vice-president of forestry Joël Quévillon detailed the many reasons for the company’s decision to close its Pontiac location.
He listed the province’s cutting of the mill’s pine wood allocation by about 30 per cent around the time the mill reopened, its cancellation of a financial assistance program that helped maintain logging roads, and the challenges of operating in a mixed forest without guaranteed takers of certain species since the pulp mill in Thurso and the softwood mill in Maniwaki closed, as some of the leading obstacles to the mill’s sustainable operation.
He said while the notice of closure was given for Dec. 19, the company is still hopeful this can be changed.
“It is still conceivable that this deadline could be delayed a little,” Quévillon wrote in French. “We’re working on it. The [Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests] has not put in place any new measures to ensure that supply is economically feasible for a long period.”
In a French statement to THE EQUITY, MRNF spokesperson Sylvain Carrier said in 2023, the province’s chief forester “reduced the allowable cut for white and red pine in the Outaouais region by 31 per cent to ensure the sustainability of the resource. The reduction is attributable in particular to the government’s decision to establish new protected areas in this region.”
The statement explained that the reduction in Commonwealth’s pine allotment was only about 15 per cent, “since volumes from Témiscamingue helped to mitigate the decrease,” and noted, “since its reopening in 2023, this mill has never consumed all the pine volumes made available to it.”
Rapides des Joachims mayor Lucie Rivet Paquette said the closure will bring a serious economic blow to the town, where it was one of the only employers.
“I think it’s going to be a big impact,” she said, noting the closure will not only affect the community’s eight people employed there, but the larger economy that has been built up around it as well.
“You not only have to think about the people working in the sawmill but you have to think about the truck drivers who come and get the wood. All those people come and work in the bush to cut the trees. It’s maybe 100 people who will lose their job.”
At MRC Pontiac’s Nov. 27 Council of Mayors meeting, a unanimous vote passed a resolution in support of the mill that demands the MRNF reinstate the financial assistance program for maintenance of forestry roads and the original wood allocation to the mill.
Following the council meeting, Warden Jane Toller, who sits on the forestry committee of the Federation of Quebec Municipalities (FQM), said she had met with the committee the day prior to discuss a plan for helping the mill to reopen.
“If we can just help them with their cutting, give them more wood to cut, and then restore the program that helps pay for the road construction, I think they’ll reopen,” Toller said, referring not only to the Commonwealth mill, but also the Résolu mill in Maniwaki, which this fall announced it would also be closing in December, laying off its 280 employees.
But Pontiac MNA André Fortin, also forestry critic for the official opposition, is less optimistic about the potential of getting these mills reopened.
“Mill closures are happening right across the province. A lot of it is due to the forestry regime in Quebec, the rules and regulations around forestry which make it so that we’re not competitive,” he said.
“Government doesn’t offer any predictability towards wood allocation, and that makes it difficult to plan and budget [ . . . ] And that’s something that everybody, whether it’s the forestry workers, the forestry companies, or all opposition parties, have been asking the government to change for about five years now. It’s in the CAQ platform but nobody has seen the start of this just yet.”
He said in the case of the mill in Rapides des Joachims, which was closed for 10 years prior to reopening again, the decrease of its wood allotments is not justifiable.
“Trees had regrown in that area, there are no other takers other than Commonwealth Plywood in that sector of the province, there really is no reason not to offer that specific mill a predictable wood allocation,” Fortin said.
“Everybody was thrilled to see it come back a few years ago, and everybody feels, right now, an equal level of despair to see it shut down again.”