Brink Forest Products has laid off all but one of its Pleasant Valley Remanufacturing employees in Houston as it struggles to cope with increasing US tariffs and duties and a lack of wood for its northern BC operations. The company’s Vanderhoof mill is now closed and, as of this week, the company’s Prince George mill is operating at one-quarter of its normal capacity, said John Brink. That one person in Houston is being kept on for care, maintenance and security of the remanufacturing plant. Brink purchased Pleasant Valley Remanufacturing in 2004 with a long-term plan to employ as many as 150 people in manufacturing value-added products. …But a continued retraction in economic conditions gradually reduced the Houston workforce so that the 20 employees working in the spring were reduced to 12 and now to the one. …With US tariffs and duties now at 50%, Brink said no operation can sustain that kind of impact.