Local cedar mill set to shut down in June
By Abigail Popple, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, RMG
Valemount-based mill Cedar Valley Holdings will be shutting down its operations at the end of June, employees say. The closure will result in the layoff of 14 employees.
In a letter shared with The Goat, employee Christine Pelletier said it has become increasingly difficult to obtain cedar logs from the Valemount Community Forest (VCF), with much of the local cedar supply being shipped to pulp mills in Prince George instead.
“I was under the impression that The Community Forest [sic.] was there to keep forestry in our community,” Pelletier wrote. “I do believe that trees felled in this valley should remain in this valley for production.”
In an interview with The Goat, owner of the mill Jason Alexander echoed Pelletier’s concerns. He has documented several instances of usable wood being sent to Prince George, with photos of trucks taking wood branded with the Valemount Community Forest name – including old-growth cedar – ranging from July 2023 through March 2025.
“I cannot express… how foolish it is for the Valemount Community Forest to be shipping logs that we need to the pulp mill in Prince George,” he said. “It’s irresponsible.”
Alexander said he has asked the three most recent general managers of the Community Forest – Brian Shawara, Craig Pryor and Kalina Velez – to supply more timber to his company, rather than sending it to Prince George, and has also made his case to the Community Forest board multiple times.
“I offered Brian [Shawara] that I’d buy all the wood so it took the pressure off him trying to put it into different sorts,” he said, adding that cedar can be made into various wood products or turned into mulch depending on its quality. “That would take the pressure off of trying to make different sorts and process the wood perfectly – it all comes in here, it all gets used. That just never happened.”
While U.S. tariffs on Canadian lumber products are a hot topic at the moment, Alexander says the business was not suffering from a lack of demand.
“We sell everything we produce, we’ve got good customers,” he said. “[We’ve] been here for 25 years. I’ve been in this industry for 38 years myself. But it can’t operate with no wood.”
Alexander added that his business is capable of turning every part of a cedar tree into sellable product – even rotten wood can be processed into mulch on-site. When usable cedar gets sent to a pulp mill in Prince George, that results in a waste of cedar and takes potential money out of the local mill, he said.
“The old-growth deferral has really put a crimp on the amount of wood that’s available, so it’s even more important that this valuable resource is used to its maximum instead of just being sent out as fault,” or unusable wood.
Additionally, the Community Forest recently told Alexander it would not re-sign its fibre supply agreement with his company, dealing another economic blow to Cedar Valley.
On the evening of April 28th, when employees began speaking out about the mill’s closure, Cedar Valley employee Simon Heiniger sent an email to the Ministry of Forests outlining his concerns about the closure.
“As we are struggling to get adequate fiber to the mill amid old-growth deferrals, Valemount Community Forest is shipping good cedar to pulp in Prince George,” Heiniger wrote. “This fiber can provide a lot of value if harvested and used responsibly—not when it goes for pulp without value-added manufacturers getting a chance to buy it at higher prices.”
Heiniger attached photos of pulp mill-bound trucks carrying cedar logs and offered to speak with the ministry to provide further information about the situation.
Contracts not violated, VCF says
In an email to The Goat, the Community Forest said the mill is not shutting down due to a lack of cedar supply from the Community Forest.
“Cedar Valley and VCF entered into a timber supply agreement, and it is VCF’s position that VCF is in compliance with its cedar supply obligations under that agreement,” wrote VCF forester Alana Duncan. “To the extent that Cedar Valley takes a different view, those concerns should be addressed through legal processes.”
The Community Forest did not respond to The Goat’s follow-up email asking for clarification on the terms of the agreement, and did not respond to The Goat’s question confirming whether the Community Forest was shipping cedar to Prince George.
Alexander said he is not claiming that the Community Forest violated its agreement with his company.
“All I [said] was that they didn’t want to re-sign the fibre agreement and that they were shipping logs from their own cut blocks to the pulp mill instead of selling it to me,” he said. “That has nothing to do with the supply agreement contract of any type.”
