Further layoffs expected in future as company tries to boost profit
Camille Bains, The Canadian Press
Catalyst Paper support employees facing layoffs are devastated that a restructuring move to boost profits has put them out of a job, says a union representative who was at a meeting Wednesday when the company announced the cuts.

“It was very sombre,” Don Boucher, of the Communications, Energy and Paperworkers Union said about the 130 job losses.

Catalyst plans to cut costs by laying off 130 workers at its Port Alberni paper mill
Photograph by : Times Colonist

“We’re very disappointed,” Boucher said. “We know that the industry is in major problems right across the country.

Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun
Published: Wednesday, May 30, 2007
Catalyst Paper has called a meeting today with union leaders from its four pulp and paper operations in what is widely believed to be an announcement that it intends to shut down capacity.

"I would say things are not looking too bright at Catalyst," said investment analyst Paul Quinn of Salman Partners. "It's really difficult right now for Canadian producers with the Canadian dollar where it is and fibre costs going up.

"I wouldn't rule out temporarily shutting down some capacity."

Catalyst has mills at Port Alberni, Powell River, Crofton and Campbell River. It could close one entire mill or several machines at a number of mills. The company lost $25 million in the first quarter of 2007.

Catalyst is the coastal region's prinicipal pulp and paper company, with 3,800 employees. Besides the four paper mills, it runs the province's only plant producing recycled paper.

BC's Health Authorities: Who gets hired (and fired).
By Will McMartin
Published: January 31, 2007 TheTyee.ca

Unexpectedly, and unintentionally, a small window was opened last week on the tight coterie of business people who have been favoured with high-powered political appointments since 2001 when Gordon Campbell's B.C. Liberals won election to government.

On Wednesday, Jan. 24, Trevor Johnstone was fired as chair of the Vancouver Coastal Health Authority, a position he held "at pleasure" through a cabinet appointment. The surprising dismissal followed disclosure that the health authority -- one of five such regional health entities in the province, and the largest, with an operating budget this year of more than $1.7 billion -- is facing a $40 million deficit.

During the month of January, 1995, I conducted a document search at the office of the Ministry of the Environment, Land and Parks (MOE) in Surrey relating to the entire operation of MacMillan Bloedel's Powell River pulp mill for the past five years. The following is my initial draft report concerning only MB's hazardous waste dump known as the Wildwood Landfill.

The original MOE Permit for this industrial dump was issued to MB in 1976 and its terms are very vague and general. Significantly, the permit was for a term of 12 years which would take it to 1988, some 7 years ago.

The dump itself is situated in an old gravel pit on a high hill immediately above Powell Lake which is the source of drinking water for the Wildwood residential community, the source of potable water and electrical power for the mill, and which flows by the mill and discharges into Georgia Strait.

DOCUMENTS

“Whither Canfor? – Part 2 – Blood in the Water”

By Peter Ewart

“Oh the shark has pretty teeth dear
And he shows them pearly white
Just a jack-knife has MacHeath dear
And he keeps it out of sight.”
- from Mack the Knife by Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht

As discussed in the first installment of this series of articles (“Whither Canfor, Part 1 – The Battle for Control”) the New York based Third Avenue Management group (TAM), has become a major shareholder in British Columbia’s forest industry with stakes in Canfor, Catalyst Paper, TimberWest, and Abitibi Consolidated.

Five Year Chart: Catalyst Paper Jan 2001 to Jan 2006

One Year Previous

June 2000: NorskeSkog ASA buys Fletcher Challenge Paper Division

Financial Positions June 2000
Fletcher Challenge - Net earnings $99 M    Debt $0    Cash $789M
NorskeSkog Canada - Net earnings $163M    Debt $0    Cash $930M

August to October 2001
'Cash Liberation' $ 1.49 Billion 'largest cash payment of it's kind in Canada'
Purchase Pacifica Paper $1.0 Billion
New Debt $1.17 Billion