Local projects please Fort St. James mayor
The first load of logs for Oregon-based Hampton Lumber’s new sawmill in Fort St. James were delivered earlier this month.
The sawmill, which remains under construction, comes as a result of a $39 million purchase of timber rights from Conifex, which shut down its operation in Fort St. James in May 2019.
Fort St. James Mayor Bob Motion said a job fair will be held in advance of it starting up and that 40-60 people will be employed.
“It’s going to be a highly-automated and efficient mill,” Motion said and added it won’t employ as many people at Sinclar Group’s Apollo sawmill in Fort St. James.
“Apollo runs around 100 to 110 employees so going to a highly efficient operation, you’re going to run with about half the staffing,” Motion said. “The advantage of that though is that you’re now going to be running more efficient, so you should be able to weather the downturns in the industry. You’ll have a much better chance of working in the down times.”
Motion also noted revival of the Fort St. James Green Energy Project.
Mired in controversies and false starts under its previous proponents, the initiative was taken over in October 2021 by BioEnergy North, a joint venture between the economic development arm of the Nak’azdli Whu’ten First Nation, Kamloops-based Arrow Transportation and low-carbon infrastructure developer Nexus Program Management Group.
They plan to have the plant, which produces electricity by burning wood waste, back in operation soon and Motion said a blessing ceremony was held at the site a few weeks back.
Motion said he was “delighted” that the trio stepped up to the plate.
“If they hadn’t done that... that whole plant would have been dismantled and sold for scrap,” he said. “I think they have 30 or 40 jobs in that operation, almost as large as what the Hampton one will be.”
Motion said the community has lost about 200 people in recent years but is still drawing in newcomers, mostly people in their 40s and older with nest eggs and a yearning to get out of the urban areas.