Conifex Timber Announces Two-Week Curtailment at Its BC Sawmill

On Thursday, British Columbia-based Conifex Timber Inc. announced that it is curtailing its sawmill and planer for a period of two weeks starting on Monday, June 17th. The company anticipates the reduced operating schedule will impact sawmill production capacity by approximately 8,500 Mfbm.

In a statement, Conifex said the curtailment is the result of ongoing weather-related transportation challenges that have delayed spring log deliveries and resulted in lower than planned log inventories.

Conifex continues to deliver spring decked logs from the southern portion of the Mackenzie Timber Supply Area (TSA) and has commenced summer logging activities in the northern portion of the TSA. While weather may continue to impact log deliveries, Conifex currently anticipates resuming full operations at the sawmill and planer on July 2nd.

In the same announcement, Conifex said it will appeal the ruling of the BC Supreme Court (BCSC) upholding a government decision that prevented it from diversifying its business operations and helping stabilize the interior BC forest sector.

Conifex had sought to develop high performance computing (HPC) data centers in northern BC. Those plans were put on hold in late 2022 when the Lieutenant Governor in Council (“LGIC”) directed the BC Utilities Commission by Order-in-Council (OIC) to relieve BC Hydro of the obligation to supply electrical service for cryptocurrency projects for a period of 18 months. The cryptocurrency moratorium forced Conifex to halt development at two HPC sites BC Hydro had identified as promising locations with available power to support HPC data center operations.

In April 2023, Conifex filed a petition in the BCSC seeking judicial review of the OIC and an order quashing and setting aside the OIC as unauthorized or otherwise invalid. The BCSC dismissed the petition in February. Although the judgment concluded that the LGIC could not impose a permanent ban on supplying power, imposing a temporary ban on cryptocurrency miners was determined to be valid.

“Conifex has not been provided any credible justification for allowing BC Hydro to deny service to our two HPC sites,” said Ken Shields, Chairman and CEO of Conifex.