Western Forest Products Announces Indefinite Curtailment of Its Alberni Pacific Division

On Tuesday, Western Forest Products Inc. announced the indefinite curtailment of its Alberni Pacific Division (“APD”) facility located in Port Alberni, BC. The mill has been temporarily curtailed since fall 2022.

In January 2023, Western announced it would not restart APD in its current configuration and established a multi-party working group to explore viable industrial manufacturing solutions for the site. In April 2023, Western commenced negotiations and due diligence processes related to a proposal received to operate the APD facility as a going concern, which would support continued salaried and hourly employment. These negotiations were ultimately unsuccessful due to more challenging macroeconomic conditions and financing markets. Western intends to move ahead with exploring other options for the property.

Western intends to offer voluntary severance to the remaining 60 APD employees, the company said. Previously, when Western announced that the APD facility would not restart in its current configuration, Western offered all eligible hourly employees a voluntary bridging to retirement program and preferentially hired a number of impacted APD employees into roles at its other facilities.

In a statement accompanying the announcement, Western Forest Products President and CEO Steven Hofer said:

“We are disappointed that, despite the significant efforts of the working group and our team, we were unable to achieve an outcome that would see APD continue to operate. This process has taken longer than expected and has been very difficult for impacted APD employees.”