The latest in a grim litany of closures in the forest products industry happened last week, and it was pretty close to home. High Prairie’s Tolko oriented strandboard mill got the chop, putting 119 people out of work.
The closure came after the mill had already been shut down, ‘temporarily’ for the past two months – one of many curtailments across the hard-hit industry. The reasons are familiar; they amount to an inability to sell a board for more than it costs to make it.
“This was a difficult, but unfortunately necessary decision,” says Tolko official Brad Thorlakson in a Feb. 11 news release, “that reflects the dramatic decline of U.S. housing starts, the strong Canadian dollar, and uncompetitive operating costs.”
As for the employees left in the lurch, Tolko is offering “various severance options,” including a chance to work elsewhere within the company. The closest ‘elsewhere’ is in Slave Lake, where Tolko’s new engineered wood products mill is getting set to open.
Heinz Zierl, the mill manager at Slave Lake, tells The Leader that both trades and operations positions will be made available to the High Prairie employees. He says the Athabasca Division (Slave Lake) is a bit behind schedule, but predicts an end of February start-up.
The company is not ruling out a re-start of the High Prairie mill. But not until conditions improve.
“These include improved customer demand in key markets, transportation and energy costs and competitively priced wood supply.”
Under those circumstances, Thorlakson adds, the company would consider further investment, “to allow the High Prairie facility to produce higher value products.”
Economists expect the current downturn in demand for panelboard products to last into 2009. It’s being called the worst downturn in the industry in the past 30 years.

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