Cheslatta Forest Products restarts sawmill and planer in Burns Lake, B.C.

Liling Tan

BURNS LAKE, B.C. , April 23, 2008 (Lakes District News) – Jamie McLennan, General Manager for Cheslatta Forest Products, said both the sawmill and planer were back in operation, with the mill starting up March 10, and the planer following on April 14.

“ The planer mill and saw mill have both started up on a full 40 hour a week basis”, he said.

McLennan said not all shifts have been recalled yet, but at least one shift on each of the two mills is back at work. He said the reason for the start-up is to deal with aging inventory, both logs and lumber, and the work is expected to continue indefinitely at his point.

“It’s always good news to call men back to work, and I think we’ve called 33 people back to work, and that’s good news,” said McLennan.

McLennan said they were assessing things on a weekly and monthly basis, and that the markets were still very soft.

“Everyone was excited to come back to work”, McLennan said. “Starting up was smooth, with fewer glitches than expected.

When it’s [the machinery has] been down for awhile you expect one thing or another to malfunction, however it was a very smooth start-up,” he said.

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