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INDUSTRIAL UPDATE: Tolko Lakeview Sawmill rebuild 85 per cent complete

Janice Lockyer, communications advisor for Tolko provided answers to our questions:
Monica Lamb-Yorski
Monica Lamb-Yorski
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Tolko Soda Creek Division’s safety committee was awarded $1,000 from head office for achieving more than a quarter million work hours without a reportable incident. After careful deliberation the committee voted unanimously to share the donation with community policing. The commitee, co-chaired by Aaron Cree and Surinderpal Rathor, along with the other members, presented the money to community poilcing’s Dave Dickson and chair Bob Sunner on Wednesday, March 20.

Industrial Update 2019

We touched base with Tolko Industries Ltd. for an update on the rebuild of Lakeview sawmill where a fire in November 2017 destroyed the mill and shut down production. Janice Lockyer, communications advisor for Tolko provided answers to our questions on behalf of the company.

Monica Lamb-Yorski (MLY): Is the new sawmill completely constructed? If not, what is left to complete?

Janice Lockyer (JL): Approximately 85 per cent of the sawmill is completely constructed, some outlying areas need finishing touches. The machine centers are being commissioned as we move through the final installation and construction phases.

MLY: What will be new about it compared to the old one?

JL: For the most part the entire manufacturing facility is new, with the exception of the backend. Several improvements were made to this existing backend to ensure the machine areas were up to the standards of the new portion of the mill.

MLY: How many employees are back on the job?

JF: We are currently in the middle of our recall process, so the numbers vary. We are conducting a thorough recall process and bringing staff back on as needed to familiarize them with our safety procedures, new equipment and processes, and anything else that may have changed while they were away.

READ MORE: Tolko sawmill prepares to recall workers as rebuild nears completion

MLY: When will it fully open?

JF: The restart process is very fluid. We want to make sure everyone is familiar with the new sawmill and that all our machinery has been tested and is running well.

We’ve tested our log processing capacity, and we’ll be looking to ramp that up in the coming weeks.

We know everyone is anxious to get back to full operations, but we need to make sure everyone is fully familiarized with the mill and that all machine centres are running properly and can handle full capacity before we do.

We’ll share an announcement with the community when we hit the restart complete milestone.


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Monica Lamb-Yorski

About the Author: Monica Lamb-Yorski

A B.C. gal, I was born in Alert Bay, raised in Nelson, graduated from the University of Winnipeg, and wrote my first-ever article for the Prince Rupert Daily News.
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