Heavy rainstorms have prompted the closing of Tembec’s five mills in Temiscaming. Severe flooding warranted the dec…
Heavy rainstorms have prompted the closing of Tembec’s five mills in Temiscaming. Severe flooding warranted the declaration of a state of emergency on Thursday morning. Blockades on the two roads leading in and out of the mills led to their complete shutdown.
“I’ve been here for over 30 years and never have we shut down because of bad weather,” said Charles Gagnon, Tembec’s vice president of corporate relations. “They’ve been shut down entirely and we don’t know when they’ll start up again. The wood room has been flooded and the rain has caused huge damage to the roads,” he added. The extent of the damage to the rails has rendered it difficult to pinpoint a date by which repairs will be completed. However, Gagnon did confirm the mills will not be able to open before the rails are fixed, as their inoperation makes transportation to the mills impossible.
A 24-hour shutdown comes with a hefty price tag of a half a million dollars and so the closure has already taken a financial toll. “We’ll open as fast as we can get it going,” Gagnon said.
Gagnon conveyed his surprise at the magnitude of the storm. “When I woke up this morning I heard Temiscaming being spoken about on the news, and I thought, holy smokes, I’ll bet most people don’t even know where that is. But so far this morning, I’ve done 16 interviews,” he said with a laugh.
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