By Angela Brown

M.L. sawmill planning to rebuild

Mar 27, 2017 | 4:50 PM

A busy sawmill in Meadow Lake has plans to rebuild this summer, following a fire that caused damages to part of the facility in January.

NorSask Forest Products CEO Al Balisky said the company is targeting August to complete its rebuild, so production can return to total capacity.

“We will get ourselves back up and running to full capacity as soon as we can,” he said. “We are hoping to be back up by August.”

The company, owned by Meadow Lake Tribal Council, is still operating at 25 per cent capacity, since the time part of the plant was burnt in a fire January 12. 

“It’s certainly an inconvenience for sure,” Balisky said.  

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The fire started at the mill operation’s intake plant, where machinery removes bark from logs entering the mill production system.

Balisky said the company is still operating on a partial basis and is involved in an insurance claim related to the fire, which he said is a lengthy process.

He added the cause of the fire is undetermined. There were no injuries as a result of the fire and the value of damages hasn’t been confirmed. The fire damaged both the building and some equipment.

Meadow Lake Fire Chief Neil Marsh confirmed the fire at the mill was non suspicious in nature and the cause is still under investigation.

Prior to the fire, the mill has 130 employees. Unfortunately, it had to lay off about half of the staff and now has about 65 employees, and is operating at reduced capacity.

“We will have to get the mill up and running at full capacity again,” said Balisky. “At that point, once the rebuild is complete we are hoping to bring some people back again.” 

The company has managed to use an alternative plan for debarking the logs, in the meantime, at a separate entry point until it is able to restore the intake plant where the fire occurred. 

“We can’t put a whole bunch of wood through that particular piece of equipment. That’s what is limiting us at this time, until we get our rebuild underway,” Balisky added.   

The company mainly processes 2×4-foot and 2×6- foot boards. Most of the company’s products are used for home construction. About 60 per cent of its product is exported to the U.S. market.

The company still runs two production shifts but at lower capacity than prior to the fire.  

“The product still stays the same,” Balisky said.

After the rebuild, the company will be able to return to a full capacity two-shift basis.  

angela.brown@jpbg.ca