File Photo (Image Credit: CFJC Today)

By James Peters

Forestry

Norbord announces permanent closure of 100 Mile House mill

Nov 5, 2020 | 11:31 AM

100 MILE HOUSE, B.C. — Norbord says its 100 Mile House Oriented Strand Board (OSB) mill will close permanently. The mill’s operations have been suspended since August, 2019.

News of the closure is contained in the company’s 2020 third quarter update posted to its website Thursday (Nov. 5).

WATCH: CFJC Today’s Dylana Kneeshaw filed this report from 100 Mile House after the initial suspension was announced.

The 100 Mile mill employs 160 people. They were thrown out of work by an ‘indefinite curtailment’ announced last year. Thursday’s news makes that closure permanent.

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In announcing the closure, Norbord says operation of the mill was made “uneconomic” by a supply shortage in the Cariboo brought on by the mountain pine beetle epidemic combined by loss of wood due to wildfire.

Norbord also says the COVID-19 pandemic played into its decision. The company says the pandemic prompted a “more flexible operating strategy” across its manufacturing operations, and that the 100 Mile mill “was unlikely to have a role to play in the future.”