Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries has eliminated 35 positions from its payroll as part of a review to find operational efficiencies.
Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries has eliminated 35 positions from its payroll as part of a review to find operational efficiencies.
Al-Pac officials say the layoffs are due to the company’ s need to cut costs and innovate where it can, and not because of gloomy economic forecasts.
“We wanted to look at making efficiencies, like any other business would,” said Monique Mosich, Al-Pac public affairs officer.
Not all of the positions that have been eliminated were filled, Mosich said, but they were all based out of Al-Pac’ s pulp mill site, approximately 70 kilometres west of Lac La Biche.
The operational review was started after Al-Pac was sold to Japan’ s Hokuetsu Kishu Paper Company in October of 2015.
Brent Rabik, a business unit leader with Al-Pac, stressed the company is still doing well and the job cuts are part of regular business streamlining.
While the forestry industry faces challenges, it’ s not going the way of the oil and gas industry with massive rollbacks, he said.
While Al-Pac has to compete with companies in Central and South America and other parts of the world where costs tend to be lower, operating in northern Alberta does have positive aspects when it comes to product quality.
“We have the advantage of better fibre with slower-growing trees,” Rabik said.
Al-Pac harvests timber from a six-million-hectare area in northeastern Alberta, through a Forest Management Agreement with the provincial government.
Mosich said the recent layoffs shouldn’ t have an impact on harvesting. Contractors come and go, but “it’ s business as usual out there,” she said.
Another area that Mosich isn’ t expecting to see major changes in is community investment. In the past, the company has supported local organizations and charities like Hope Haven Women’ s Shelter through its Community Enhancement Program.
Although that program is currently under review, the expectation is that the company will continue to play a role in the region’ s social development.
“I don’ t expect there to be a whole lot of changes to our programs out there in the community,” Mosich said.
A month after Al-Pac was sold last year, it was announced that another regional forestry company, Millar Western Forest Products, planned to close its sawmill in Boyle indefinitely because of lower market demand.
