Townsfolk contemplate life with main employer gone

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This article was published 24/08/2010 (5893 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

PINE FALLS — Over a cup of coffee in a sparsely populated local hangout, former Pine Falls paper mill worker Moe Bouvier said the inevitable has finally happened.

"I can’t say we weren’t expecting this," he said of the mill’s closure. "But it’s been a whole year of disappointment."

Bouvier worked at the mill for more than 30 years, and said he and fellow workers lost trust in paper mill owner Tembec a long time ago.

"There has been no trust there for a long time," Bouvier said. "We’re going to have to fight them tooth and nail now for severance and retirement."

Despite the finality of the mill closure now reverberating through the town, Bouvier said he had no plans to move.

He has already taken a new mining job 120 kilometres away in Bissett, where he has worked for the last two months.

"This is my home. I’ve lived here for so many years there’s no way I’m moving," Bouvier said. "As the process dragged on longer and longer, people had to start looking for work."

The mill closure has led to a challenging new job opportunity for former employee Gary Richardson.

Like Bouvier, he worked at the mill for more than 30 years and hopes to take over co-ownership of the Pine Falls Service Centre.

"Mill work was a good job. I got paid well. I had friends there," Richardson said. "But in February, I decided it was time to move on, it was a hard decision."

Richardson said "the billion-dollar question" is what business might be able to operate in the old mill building.

"It would have to be some sort of manufacturing," he said. "And this is a good tourism area, with good hunting and fishing. It would be nice if this became a bit of a transportation hub."

— Britt Harvey