Ken Kalesnikoff

Everyone in B.C. has an image of a lumber mill: hard-hatted workers at the controls, saw blades screeching…. But enter the Kalesnikoff Lumber mass timber mill at South Slocan, near Castlegar, and it’s a different kind of world. Inside a low, sprawling building full of electronics, machines are cutting, gluing, trimming, shifting, stacking. The only noise is a background hum. The workers look as though they’d be equally at home in a tech plant or an aerospace centre. …Kalesnikoff’s mass timber mill produces what are known as GLT panels, or glue-laminated timber… as well as CLT, or cross-laminated timber… It’s used in making floors, walls and roofs. …The Kalesnikoff family has deep roots in the West Kootenay, going back to the arrival of the Doukhobors a century ago. …Do more with less. …for Kalesnikoff, and many others in B.C.’s forest industry, it’s the new reality.