Friday, November 16, 2018 | Your community newspaper since 1916
Canfor still believes in B.C., CEO says Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff mnielsen@pgcitizen.ca Canfor Corp. CEO Don Kayne said Thursday the lumber and pulp and paper producer remains committed to British Columbia despite the company signing a deal to buy a majority stake in a Swedish sawmill company. In a teleconference with media following the announcement, Kayne said the majority of Canfor’s production continues to be in British Columbia and the company will remain headquartered in Vancouver. Canfor has reached an agreement to buy 70 per cent of Vida Group for about $580 million. The privately-held company has nine sawmills in southern Sweden with an annual production capacity of 1.1 billion board feet. The announcement comes about a week after Canfor said it will be buying Elliott Sawmilling Co., Inc., based in South Carolina, for US$110 million, subject to due diligence. In late October, Canfor reported third-quarter earnings of $125.3 million, doubled from the year before despite lower lumber prices. However, the figure was down from the second quarter when Canfor took in $169.8 million and said Nov. 1 it would be reducing production at its B.C. sawmills by about 10 per cent this quarter. Unionized sawmill workers in northern B.C. are in a strike position and the United Steelworkers Local 2017 has accused Canfor of implementing rotating layoffs “in what looks more like a bargaining tactic than a reflection of markets.” Despite the moves, Kayne said the company still remains committed to B.C., where he said the majority of Canfor’s production is still based. “We still believe long term, B.C. is well positioned geographically to grow in the Asian markets for sure, let alone the U.S. market,” he said. “However, with some of the AAC (annual allowable cut) reductions that you’re all familiar with due to the mountain pine beetle, and some of the recent forest fires that we’ve all had to deal with the last couple of years, the expansion opportunities are certainly limited in B.C. “But our customers are growing and we need to keep pace with them and frankly, that’s the simple fact. And we’re dealing with, and we’re very proud of it, a very very strong customer base worldwide. — see VIDA GROUP, page 2
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Time to fill the kettles Capt. Neil Wilkinson from The Salvation Army gets the kettles ready for the launch of The Salvation Army’s 2018 Christmas Kettle Campaign. Everyone is invited to the Kettle Launch event between 4 p.m. and 6 p.m. today at the Pine Centre Mall centre court. Musical guests include The Bel Canto Choirs, Jaymie Walker and Cliff Raphael. The 2018 campaign will run from today until 2 p.m. on Dec. 24. The Salvation Army is always looking for volunteers to ring the bells at one of their 13 kettle locations. To volunteer call the Kettle line at 250-596-HOPE(4073).
TNW show will rock the house Frank PEEBLES Citizen staff fpeebles@pgcitizen.ca Prince George is getting a discount on classic rock ‘n’ roll. Theatre NorthWest is where this musical gold is on sale. Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Jerry Lee Lewis comprised a secret million-dollar quartet, one night in a private musical meeting at Sun Studios. It was Dec. 4, 1956. No poster could hold the zeroes if you tried to calculate the value of that session in today’s dollars. It was a real-life script that no writer would dare attempt, so the play Million Dollar Quartet could only ever come out of raw rock ‘n’ roll reality. The four hall-of-famers ended up there in that Memphis studio that fateful night quite by accident. Cash was huge at the time with I Walk The Line and its B-side smash Get Rhythm only seven months old, and his first previous chart hits Cry Cry Cry, Folsom Prison Blues and I’m So Doggone Lonesome still fresh in the public’s mind from the year before. Yet he was far from the peak of his career. Lewis was showing signs of his powerful potential, but he still hadn’t released
CITIZEN PHOTO BY BRENT BRAATEN
Theatre NorthWest’s production of Million Dollar Quartet runs from Nov. 22 to Dec. 12. Performers in the show are, from left, David Sklar as Sam Phillips, Montgomery Bjornson as Jerry Lee Lewis, Edward Murphy as Carl Perkins, Frankie Cottrell as Elvis Presley and Kenton Klassen as Johnny Cash. In back are Curtis Abriel as Brother Jay and Daniel Bell as Fluke. any of his biggest hits. Great Balls of Fire and Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On were just about to pop, but hadn’t been tracked yet. He was known then for his popular cover version of the Ray Price
hit Crazy Arms, and he was clearly an earth-shattering piano player. He wasn’t a household name yet, but his peers all knew he was The Killer. — see TICKETS, page 3
Company seeks deadline extension to get bus service rolling Mark NIELSEN Citizen staff The owners of a fledgling bus company have asked the Passenger Transportation Board for an extension of the deadline to get a service connecting Prince George
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to the Lower Mainland and Southern Interior on the road. Merritt Shuttle Bus Services Ltd. has until Nov. 21 to have everything in place under the PTB’s terms and conditions to run long-haul services across B.C.
Through an expedited process launched after Greyhound withdrew from Western Canada, MSBS won the PTB’s permission in late October to operate the service — see COMPANY, page 2
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