EAR FALLS — Dozens of people, including forestry and mill workers and union and political officials rallied in support of the Ear Falls sawmill on Saturday.
Katrina Peterson, the president of the Unifor union local that represents mill and woodlands workers affected by the recent indefinite idling of the Interfor-owned facility, said they heard many stories of young families now facing a lot of uncertainty.
“The personal stories, which you know are very heartbreaking especially in a small northern community reliant on the forestry industry,” she said of what she was hearing at the Oct. 25 rally in front of the township’s municipal offices.
“In particular, you hear that the young families, with very young children, who have no idea what the future holds if things don’t turn around,” Peterson continued. “Where are these workers going to go to work when we’re facing the same challenges across Canada?”
Peterson said the forestry sector is in crisis right now, after duties and tariffs on softwood lumber levied by U.S. President Donald Trump have tripled in recent weeks, now sitting at a combined 45 per cent.
She said there’s no new information about the expected length of the Ear Falls mill shutdown, only that it remains “indefinite.” Interfor officials have told Newswatch they’re evaluating the situation on a week-to-week basis. Domtar-owned sawmills in Atikokan and Ignace are also facing planned two-week idlings over the holidays in December and into the new year.
In and around Ear Falls, Unifor represents about 160 workers at the mill itself and a fluctuating number in woodlands operations, who are responsible for harvesting and managing the tree stands.
Saturday’s rally was co-organized by the union and the Kenora-Rainy River provincial NDP. Peterson said between 75 and 100 people attended.
She said the woodlands workers are especially being hard hit.
“We have, kind of the … forgotten part of our forestry (industry) is our woodlands workers and the contractors, so there’s a big concern there with those workers,” she said. “A lot of them have relocated from the east coast when this mill started up and made their home here.”
“And with the big costs of equipment and payments, they’re going to be struggling as well — they don’t have anywhere else to go to because, again, Canada is facing the same challenges across the board so it’s not like they can head west to find work for their equipment and their employees.”
In Ear Falls, Peterson said a number of foreign workers are also facing uncertain futures, with some of them coming to the region anywhere from “a few years ago” to “only a few weeks ago.”
Union officials are calling for softwood lumber to be included in any future trade deals with the United States. Stephen Boon, Unifor’s northern area director, said lumber was left out of the CUSMA deal between Canada, the U.S. and Mexico, and with the industry primarily centred in more rural and norther locales, any slowdown and uncertainty has a major effect on local communities.
Trump recently axed trade talks with Canada, blaming an anti-tariff ad the Ontario government was running in the U.S.
The provincial NDP, who was represented at the event by Kiiwetinoong MPP Sol Mamakwa, said in an email that the Ear Falls facility “isn’t just a building, it’s a lifeline,” and “its closure left families without notice and without a plan.”
“We rallied not just to reopen the mill — but to reclaim it. Workers must have an ownership stake in the industries they sustain. Corporate bottom lines should never outweigh community lifelines.”
The NDP said it will be presenting a petition on the matter at Queen’s Park.
The party also called for the use of Canadian lumber in home building, something Peterson echoed.
She said the union is also calling on governments to support local workers and to do what they can do get the mill up and running.
“How that looks like for support from the government, I’m not sure — and we’re in the middle of talks about that — but clearly, making sure the workers are supported during this time, financially and in other areas,” she said.
“But also making sure that we get that mill up and running again and our workers back into their jobs.”
