Meadow Lake Sawmill Shutting Down

Meadow Lake Sawmill Shutting Down

Friday, March 13, 2009 at 14:08

NorSask Forest Products in Meadow Lake is shutting down its sawmill indefinitely, starting this Sunday.

Forty people will be out of work as a result of that decision.

However, 22 employees will continue to work at the company’s planing facilities — including management, sales staff and maintenance workers.

Norsask is 100 per cent owned by the Meadow Lake Tribal Council.

MLTC Resource Development CEO Ben Voss says the company has to wait for the U.S. economy to improve before it can re-open the mill.

Voss says shutting down the mill wasn’t an easy decision, but they had little choice until the market improves.

In a release, NorSask President Allen Brander blames “exceptionally bad market conditions”, noting the sawmill has been one of the few in Canada to maintain operations to this point.