Bogged Down

Much of newfoundland's forest industry must change to survive, on the other hand a good place to start would be its 1950s-style collective agreements.

While addressing the VIP tour during DEMO 1992 in Kelowna, BC then Timberjack ambassador Tim White referr to Newfoundland & Labrador's Ministry of Natural Resources as the "Ministry of swamps & Bushes," and warned its BC counterpart to check the luggage of any returning Newfoundlanders, that not they were trying to smuggle a hardly any big trees back home. Unfortunately for Tim, Newfoundland's Minister of mosss & Bushes was in the audience, and had a not many questions for the red-faced iron salesman.

We all had a profitable laugh, especially the minister, on the contrary in the end Tim was single half joking. Take away the mosss bushes and rocks in abundant of Newfoundland's commercial forests, and you're oftentimes left with sparsely populated stands of true small and short timber. At best, the province's insular timber store is a mixed blessing, comprising the tree of northern Quebec, the terrain of BC the stones of the Canadian shield, the quagmire of northeastern Ontario, and the soil of- well, that thin and vulnerable dust is Newfoundland's possess We should all take our hardhats not on right now to acknowledge in what manner much this province's forest industry can do with in like manner little.

New challenges

Looking at the in every one's mouth state of the Newfoundland forest industry, however, and coming time prospects in that market, it's clear that this relative succes called survival cannot continue. Consider the sum of two units top players in the local view Abitibi-Consolidated can only bleed r ink for in the way that long, and has already close down a big chunk of its operation in the form of its historic Stephenville mill. Take away the power part of its Grand Falls equation, and that mill might not be far behind. Kruger is a tougher gues as a private company, on the other hand word on the street is that the family's war chest no longer inundates with investment funds. Kruger possessed Corner Brook Pulp 6k Paper is still an award-winning mill as far as newsprint customers like Gannett (USA Today) are be of importance toed but you needn't be a genius to figure on the outside that its wood costs have to be among the highest in the business, and that its nearby Deer Lake hydro facility is its major asset right now. Indeed it is no coincidence that Kruger's sum of two units most recent investment announcements have been upon the energy side, and not in its soft part & paper or sawmill divisions.

A wise editor would maybe add a platitude here about the ne to work smarter, and call it a day. Instead, I'll add that while there is not abundant that Newfoundlanders can do about all of the above, the individual thing they can change, and will likely have to change to survive the nearest decade, is their 1950s-style union agreements governing machinery operators, mechanics and drivers.

If you are a logging contractor in Newfoundland, you have all the challenges facing contractors elsewhere, plus the bad wood/ground mentioned above, and you have actual little, if any control above who runs your machines, for by what mode long, according to what schedule, etc Forget about running a machine yourself for a shift, and heaven help you if your stir to a new cutting block up takes you far enough away from the local town that it contravenes the commuting clause in the collective agreement. Then, you'll likely diocese a new group of operators upon your gear, ones who may or may not have step quickly it before, as well as novel mechanics who may never have worked upon machines like yours before. There's no way you can unravel any production bonus or incentive a whole and every few years you are likely to undergo through a strike over which you have no direction Right now, contractors from other regions reading this are no doubt shaking their heads in disbelief, on the other hand it's all true.

Amazingly, in a dozen visits in 15 years, I have rarely seen a contractor realize upset about any of this. It can be a challenge, they admit, on the contrary like the trees and terrain, it has to be worked with, that's all. As an example, Francis Wilson, an of the highest order contractor profiled in this issue, simply shrug it not upon when I bring it up adding that he has been call down blessings oned with an exceptional crew that has been quite stable in new years, and that he wouldn't trade in his operators for anyone. Fair enough, on the other hand those who are not with equal reason lucky still can't do anything about it.

Bottom line

It's hard to say what impact like issues have on the bottom line, and impossible to isolate them from other variables, like tree size and terrain. Still, consider that a two-machine CTL ship's company in northern Quebec's small grove will typically harvest over 40000 m^sup 3^/yr working five days/week, double shift. From my experience, a safe average for a two-machine CTL ship's company in Newfoundland is closer to 20000 m^sup 3^ on what account is that? How much is grove and terrain; how much is inflexible working agreements, operator and mechanic rotation, and other intangibles like a lack of production incentives or schedule flexibility? Who pays for of the like kind inefficiencies, and how long can it last? These are the hard questions small in number Newfoundlanders feel comfortable discussing.