Glen Clarke carried a heavy load on his shoulders Friday, as he hitched up his semi for one of the last times. The truck driver is one of 40 employees of Kingsley Trucking suddenly laid off on Thursday, when their employer was placed into receivership and all of its assets seized. …The Coombs-based trucking business lost its months-long fight in BC Supreme Court on Thursday. The Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) successfully argued its case to recall its loan to Kingsley Trucking and put it in receivership because it shares some of the same owners as the San Group, which owes close to $200 million to creditors. …Laid-off employees include truckers, mechanics, and office workers. In addition, the truck loads of goods distributed between the Lower Mainland and Vancouver Island were suddenly left stranded, when the decision came down.
As of 2024 there are 2,500 sawmills in the U.S. and 850 in Canada. However, these numbers have to be looked at in context of housing starts in both countries. An interesting number: The rebuilding of 16,000 houses that burnt down in California require 4,300 fully loaded eight-axle trailer trucks with dimensioned lumber. We must be innovative and need more skilled workers. We should have a few smaller mills and/or machinery producing metric size timber for Europe and Japan. …We cannot change what is happening in the US, but despite an executive order from higher up, many mills in the US are suffering from a steady lack of timber supply and do not have the manpower or loggers required to steadily feed some of the mills. In Montana for example, 36 mills have closed over the last years because of a lack of timber supply, as well as a lack of loggers.
