City councillor urges billionaire Jim Pattison to personally deliver final cheques to laid

City councillor urges billionaire Jim Pattison to personally deliver final cheques to laid-off mill workers

Hundreds of jobs have been lost as Canfor closes mills around B.C. in moves company says are 'gut-wrenching'

A Prince George city councillor is challenging billionaire Jim Pattison to personally hand out final paycheques to workers losing their jobs at Canfor's Northwood Pulp Mill.

Pattison owns the Jim Pattison Group, the majority shareholder in Vancouver-based forestry company Canfor.

Over the past several years, Canfor has closed multiple mills around B.C., impacting hundreds of workers.

The latest closure is the Northwood Pulp Mill in Prince George, with approximately 300 people facing layoffs.

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At a July 28 news conference, Coun. Brian Skakun — himself a former Canfor employee — said he wanted to see Pattison, who Forbes lists as being worth an estimated $11.9 billion, personally hand out cheques as the workers leave the job site for the last time.

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"If Jimmy Pattison really wants to live by his decision, then I would encourage him to come out to these mills when they're shut down and hand out the last cheques to each employee personally and say, 'I am sorry for what is going on,'" Skakun said, accusing Canfor of being more concerned about shareholders than communities.

"I think Jimmy Pattison could easily reverse this decision, invest more into pulp mills and make sure these families have jobs into the future."

Skakun's comments echo criticism from other local leaders who question whether Canfor is doing enough to support the communities that helped build the company.

From B.C. roots to a global company

According to its website, Canfor was founded on the banks of the Fraser River with a small, 28-person mill in New Westminster, B.C.

In the coming decades, it grew rapidly along with B.C.'s forest industry, acquiring timber rights and starting up new operations on Vancouver Island, Grande Prairie, Alberta and, notably, Prince George where it built pulp and paper operations and employed hundreds of workers in the upstart city which was seeing rapid growth through the 1960s.

That growth continued into the 1980s and 1990s and Canfor's name became ubiquitous through the region as it acquired naming rights to a lecture theatre at the University of Northern B.C. and both of Prince George's public swimming pools.

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But as it grew, it also expanded beyond Canada, acquiring operations at 17 locations throughout the United States, and 27 in Europe.

In 2024, the company spent nearly $73 million US purchasing new operations in Arkansas just weeks before it opted to close mills in Vanderhoof and Fort St. John, B.C., blaming in part tariffs placed on Canadian softwood by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

In the past decade it's also been accused of "hoarding" forestry licences in communities where mills have shut down, preventing new startups from taking its place.

Since then, it has started selling off assets in northern B.C., the most recent of which went to a consortium of First Nations west of Prince George.

The four nations that are part of the consortium are the Stellat'en, Nadleh Whut'en, Saik'uz and Lheidli T'enneh First Nations.

The elected chief of the Nak'azdli Whut'en First Nation, whose reserve is also located nearby, has questioned whether multinationals like Canfor have adequately managed forests and protected local jobs.

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"Local fibre should go to local mills so that local communities benefit," Colleen Erickson said in a statement. 

"Not multinationals who take profits outside of the region while mills close, local businesses suffer, and jobs are lost." 

Recent closures 'gut-wrenching,' CEO says

For its part, Canfor has called decisions to close mills "gut-wrenching," blaming tough market conditions within B.C. and Alberta, where the Fox Creek sawmill is also closing.

Canfor cited U.S. tariffs, weak global markets and a declining sustainable fibre supply.

"These are incredibly difficult decisions that impact our employees, their families, and our local communities," chief executive officer Susan Yurkovich told a conference call Thursday, as reported by The Canadian Press.

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"We've made changes across our platform that are gut-wrenching, but we are putting our business on a more sustainable footing."

The remarks came after Canfor reported its second-quarter loss narrowed to $18.5 million from a loss of $202.8 million a year earlier. The loss amounted to 16 cents per diluted share for the quarter ended June 30 compared with a loss of $1.71 per diluted share in the same quarter last year, according to The Canadian Press.

Sales for the quarter totalled $1.53 billion, up from $1.38 billion in the second quarter of 2025.

With files from Hanna Petersen and the Canadian Press