TERRACE, B.C. — Truckers hauling logs off Skeena Cellulose property near the Carnaby mill should prepare for resistance from disgruntled unemployed sawmill workers.

When the Carnaby sawmill was closed and 103 people lost their jobs, there was a lot of anger voiced by former sawmill workers. They have become even more vocal after hearing that Mercer International may buy Skeena and try to export their timer out of the area.

“I am quite confident that the community will do everything in its power to stop logging and logs coming off the Skeena tree farm licences as long as that mill’s not running,” Dave Coles, regional vice-president for communications, Energy and Paperworks (CEP) union, tells local media. “The logs aren’t going to leave that valley if the sawmill doesn’t run. We’ll do whatever we have to do.”

By permanently closing the mill, former workers say the company was able to eliminate all employees without paying severance.

“If they think they’re going to log the Skeena lands and keep that sawmill down and export those logs out of the area, quite frankly they’re going to have a dustup with us,” says Coles.