Money to be made in the woods
B.C.'s forestry industry heads East to fill jobs
VANCOUVER -The story of Canadian forestry in the past year has been unflinchingly depressing, as a darkening nightmare in the market for wood has forced employers to fell thousands upon thousands of jobs.
So it may be startling to hear some of the West Coast's most promising six-figure jobs these days are in this very industry. In fact, the need for workers has grown so severe that pulps mills in British Columbia have taken to looking to displaced Ontario auto workers -- and, in at least one case, even an Alberta grocery store worker -- to fill their ranks.
The steady flow of bad news has given forestry such a poor reputation that few are willing to take jobs -- even when they are available -- a situation that, executives worry, will dramatically worsen as ageing workers retire and the younger generation studiously avoids jobs in the woods.
The problem is especially serious for the pulp and paper industry, where the average worker's age is nearly 50, and mills expect to lose between 5% and 10% of their workforce every year for the next five years. On Vancouver Island, a database of tradespeople available for temporary work has shrunk to virtually nothing from 200 in 2001.
With those people gone -- many of them to Fort McMurray -- pulp and paper companies have had to look much farther abroad. Several are sending recruiters to Ontario at the end of the month to chat up laid-off manufacturing workers about coming West to work for an industry that may not be thriving, but needs people nonetheless.
Hiring new forestry workers "definitely seems ironic, with so many places shutting down. But there's such a shortage [of skilled workers] that they're snapped up as soon as places close down," said Ruth Mitchell, a recruiter with Red Seal Recruiting, one of the companies travelling to Ontario for the job fair, which is being organized by the provincial government. "So there are just not enough employees to go around for the companies that are trying to keep operations going and keep up with the speed that construction and oil and gas are demanding these people."
Instrument mechanics and pipe-fitters are in especially high demand. With overtime, workers in either job would typically pull in six figures in a year. But most haven't wanted to get anywhere near the woods.
"There's a perception it's not a good field," said Kael Campbell, head recruiter at Red Seal. "But there's always going to be trees to pulp in B.C."
That's a message the industry has been trying to sell to young people.
"It's all about having a vision that it's not the end of the industry," said David Gandossi, the chief financial officer at pulp producer Mercer International who also chairs the B.C. Pulp and Paper Task Force, which counts recruitment as a major part of its aim to revitalize the industry. "There's no other place, other than Russia, where you can build [northern bleached softwood kraft] pulp mills, so it's going to be a good business going forward for B.C. That's definitely coming. But it's hard to see today."
To help bring younger people in, the pulp industry has begun selling itself, both inside the industry and outside. Pulp executives host community dinners and community days, where they present economic analyses that show a long and prosperous life for the industry. At the same time, they are battling unions to change internal structures that have traditionally stifled upward mobility for talented newcomers by restricting advancement to those who have put in enough time.
Education is another element. "We're putting much more focus on internal training and apprenticeship programs," Mr. Gandossi said. "We have to create the tradespeople ourselves. They're awfully hard to find."
Part of the battle is attempting to overturn the stereotype of forestry as the domain of grizzled men with thick biceps and weathered faces. In truth, most mills today use cutting-edge digital technology that requires skills from the more smooth-faced members of society.
"On the manufacturing side, there's roles for people that are highly skilled in programming logic for process equipment. A lot of the stuff today is computer-driven," said Gerry Miller, the executive vice-president of operations for West Fraser Timber Co. Ltd. "People have this vision of a sawyer operating a band saw, a great big head rig thing out of the '60s. It's not like that."
Like many other companies, West Fraser has begun going to job fairs to talk to potential recruits, and has opened spaces for co-op students. It's all very new to an industry that was once the West Coast's lifeblood, and knew it.
"I guess it's different for us. In the past, in B.C. at least, the forest industry was an obvious place to go have a career," Mr. Miller said. "Now we're having to promote that a little bit more than we used to."
The irony, of course, is it should be an easy sell. At the University of British Columbia's Centre for Advanced Wood Processing, graduates all have jobs before they don mortarboards. Better yet, they make good money. A recent survey found that five years after graduation, those who have completed the program are averaging salaries of $88,000, more than graduates of any other UBC faculty, including mechanical and civil engineering.
Yet the wood program can't fill its spots; it is only 60% enrolled, and many of those come in through chance encounters with the program's director, Simon Ellis. "We have a really positive story to tell if people will listen to it," he said. "But we almost have to recruit students one at a time. They don't just flock to our Web site."
Recruiters are left with little choice. They draw from anyone they can find -- at Red Seal, Albertan immigrants and Ontario power engineers have proven fruitful of late. They also have changed their pitch: These days, Mr. Campbell talks a bit about trees and a lot about salmon runs and prawn fishing. In other words, forestry is out and play is in.
"Fortunately in B.C., there are some really good opportunities, whether it's hunting and fishing or nature," he said. "You have to sell the lifestyle."
