Laid-off workers look at new options
Anthony Lynds seeks a fresh start far from home after Northern Pulp’s closure
TRURO, N.S. – Anthony Lynds was just 12 years old when he harvested trees with a feller-buncher for the first time.
Now 36, he is struggling to sell lumber to customers since Northern Pulp’s closure. His plans to take charge of the family business are on hold.
“You always assume you’re going to keep going, take it over. Now, is it worth it?” said Lynds, from North River. “It pisses me off.”
Lynds was one of approximately 20 people who attended a job fair in Truro run by the EACOM Timber Corporation Feb. 11, according to organizers.
EACOM runs sawmills across northern Ontario and Quebec’s vast boreal forests. The company, headquartered in Montreal, is seeking people for full-time positions in its sawmills, as well as contractors like Lynds to cut timber.
Lynds had not quite decided if he wanted to leave home, but EACOM has plenty of opportunities for contractors in its woodlands. The prospect of working in a remote location, hundreds of kilometres from major cities, did not faze him.
“I’d have to consider anything right now,” said Lynds.
Before Northern Pulp closed, Lynds could earn up to $125 per hour felling wood.
He would sell his lumber to the Point Tupper Generating Station, a biomass plant in Port Hawkesbury, Cape Breton.
But the plant can now buy cheaper wood chips from major corporations that previously sold to Northern Pulp. This leaves Lynds out of a job.
“As small guys, we are the ones feeling the pinch,” said Lynds.
Also feeling the pinch is Kevin Macaskill from Valley, who was a maintenance manager at Northern Pulp’s sawmill in Pictou County. He greeted news of its shutdown with dismay when it was announced five days before Christmas.
“We were legislated out of work, I don’t think that’s correct,” said Macaskill, who has a wife and three children.
If EACOM hires him, he will do the same work he did for Northern Pulp, supervising the shutdown of sawmill machinery and overseeing routine maintenance work.