Catalyst appoints new CFO

Brian Baarda, a name that most people at Elk are familiar with, has just been appointed as the new CFO of Catalyst Paper. See the attached press release.

Richmond (BC) – Catalyst Paper (TSX:CTL) today announced the appointment of Brian Baarda, vice president, finance and chief financial officer effective November 5, 2009.

Mr. Baarda brings 20 years of industry experience most recently as vice-president, operations responsible for recycled paper production and facilities. Prior to that he was vice president of Powell River Division, and from 2003 to 2005 he held the role of vice-president, supply chain.

He began his career with Fletcher Challenge at the Mackenzie pulp mill in northern British Columbia where he held a number of senior accounting and analysis positions between 1990 and 2000. He moved to the operations side of the business in 2001 as the pulp mill manager at Elk Falls, a role he held until 2003.

“Looking Forward” North Island Career Expo

There is a career fair taking place on Nov 19^th at the Robron Centre in Campbell River from 10 am – 2 pm. Everyone is welcome.

This career and education event will feature North Island employers, colleges and industry associations who will be there to talk to workers, students and other community members to promote their industry as a career choice to the workforce of the future and talk about what skills and training are needed to enter different fields of work. Some examples of employers we have lined up so far include: Neucel, Marine Harvest, Ministry of Forests, “We Care” Seniors care, Service Canada, John Howard Society and more. We expect to have nearly 40 career ‘exhibitors’.

Please note that this is not a hiring fair but a career, education and training event. Individuals are welcome to bring their resumes but there will not be jobs posted at this event and businesses won’t be accepting resumes (unless they ask for one)

Wage Caucus

We were in Vancouver last week at the Western Region Pulp & Paper Wage Caucus. Here are details about a few of the bigger issues we discussed from the agenda.

Update #4 EI appeal

So the saga goes on…

Just a couple of weeks ago we received a favourable decision from the board of referees over our appeal of how E/I treated holiday pay in advance.
Yesterday we got confirmation that the EI commission is appealing that decision. They will now go in front of the umpire to see if he will overturn the board of referees decision. It’s starting to feel like dealing with Catalyst (except at least EI gives you answers to your questions)

I’ll post more details as soon as I get them.

Kitimat pulp mill to close shop

By Gordon Hamilton, Vancouver Sun October 28, 2009

West Fraser Timber says it is shutting down its Eurocan pulp mill at Kitimat, throwing 535 people out of work. The mill will close Jan. 31, the company said in a news release late Wednesday. Company president Hank Ketcham blamed “a steep decline” in the mill’s financial results for the closure.

Company Proposal to Restart Elk – Update

Representatives from both Locals 630 and 1123 along with our National rep met with the Company on Wed Oct 21st to give them a formal response to their recent proposal for restarting Elk Falls.
We told the Company that both Locals had reviewed it with their respective memberships and that the members clearly indicated they were not interested in the proposal.

Pension Article

In the Globe and Mail today there was an interesting article on our Pulp and Paper Pension Plan. Most of you will recognise Dave Schaub our previous rep. It’s thanks to him and the rest of the boards govenance that our plan is not in trouble as so many others are. It wasn’t too many years ago that people thought they were being too conservative but in hindsight they have been proven to be right.

Here’s a link to the article saved as a PDF.Part three pension

6 Months… and counting

We’re now 6-months plus into an indefinite curtailment. A curtailment which we were first told was caused by the lack of available fibre. Then came the economic meltdown and the declining demand for newsprint and our mill was the one targeted by Catalyst to go down. This curtailment has some strange twists and when you factor in the ongoing legal battles Catalyst is involved in, (Co-Gen over having to utilize their steam, and the Municipality over taxes) it’s far from straightforward.

Many in our membership believe (right or wrong) that the rest of the industry in our Province seems to be humming along with relatively little or no downtime. Granted, many of the other operations in the Province are pulp producers, and those that are paper mills produce grades higher than newsprint, but there are a few places making newsprint while our PM #5, probably the lowest cost news machine in the Province sits idle.