Louisiana Pacific will indefinitely close operations at the Peace Valley OSB plant in Fort St. John’s.

The work stoppage was indefinite and caused 190 workers to lose their jobs. Company officials communicated to employees in the town on Thursday.

"Although our Peace Valley team has worked hard to reduce costs in the past few months, this decision is necessary to support us in optimizing our OSB business under challenging market conditions," Jason Ringblom, executive vice president of LP OSB, said in a statement Said in.

"Declining housing starts, high timber costs and related cost pressures require us to take actions that are consistent with our performance-oriented strategy." 

LP's director of corporate affairs, Mark Morrison, said that according to the US Census Bureau, the total number of housing starts fell by 13% from a year ago, and the price of commodity oriented strand board fell by more than 35% compared with the same period last year.

Morrison said: "The actions LP is taking now are driven by poor market conditions, rather than reflecting that our team in Peace Valley has been trying to find ways to reduce costs for months."

The employee said that according to reports, work at the plant will continue until the closure, which will take effect on August 9. The employees stated that they would be paid before the beginning of September and then receive severance pay based on their years of service.

The plant has an annual production capacity of 800 million square feet. It is the largest taxpayer in the city and paid $1.05 million in property taxes last year.

Acting Mayor Gold Clarkson said in a statement: "We are deeply shocked by Louisiana Pacific's announcement today and share the pain of this devastating news with our communities and affected families."

"The council has contacted the Louisiana Pacific region to provide support, as always, to reopen the factory and allow our residents to resume work."

MLA Dan Davies said the upcoming closure of the Peace Valley OSB plant in Fort St. John’s is the latest blow to BC’s troubled forestry sector.

After announcing this week that Norbord will cut its oriented strand board plant at 100 Mile House indefinitely and Canfor will cut all its operations except for a sawmill in BC, there was bad economic news.

"The recent shutdown will put at least 190 workers out of work and will affect hundreds of additional indirect jobs. My community simply cannot afford this loss," Peace River North MLA Dan Davies said in a statement.

"For months, my colleagues and I have been expressing concerns about the growing crisis in the forest industry. In the past few months, our worries have been ignored. It is time for He Jin and the New Democratic Party to stand up, take action and provide practical The solution is to deal with the crisis situation."

The Liberal Party of B.C. stated in a statement that as of 2019, the layoffs announced by B.C. reached hundreds of millions of board feet and operating downtime was at least 83 weeks.

Send an email to editor-in-chief Matt Preprost at editor@ahnfsj.ca.

[Editor's note: updated with comments and more details from Louisiana Pacific, the city, and MLA Dan Davies. ]