Tolko’s Soda Creek mill will be shut down for at least two weeks beginning Oct. 20, and the company is in discussions to reduce its workweek in Cariboo mills.

“We hope it will be no longer than a couple of weeks,” says Rob Fraser, general manager of Tolko’s Cariboo & Alberta Lumber division, of the shutdown.

The stud mill and planer operations will be idle until at least Nov. 2, affecting about 145 employees. Nearly nine million board feet will be removed from the marketplace. Market conditions will dictate when the mill will be started back up.

Low product pricing and weak demand are to blame, Fraser says.

“The picture for studs is even weaker,” he says. ““We know decisions like this are tough on our employees, who have performed well and operated safely throughout the year.

“But we must make decisions in the best long-term interest of our company and our people, and adjustments like this from time-to-time will be necessary while the market is in its current state.”

As Tolko has gone through a period of low demand for dimension lumber in the United States, it has seen some correction of the supply in Canada, Fraser says, but the same hasn’t been seen for studs.

He says the lower exchange rate is a “little bit of a bright spot” for the company.

Tolko and its union are also in discussions to look at reducing the workweek at its dimension mills to four days, and may apply to Human Resource Development Canada for a workshare program, which would see the fifth day’s income supplemented by HRDC.

“We’re really trying to think about cushioning any blows to our employees,” Fraser says, noting the company will be keeping a close eye on market conditions going forward into the last quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009.

He won’t make any guesses as to whether the Soda Creek shutdown is the first of more to come.

“Between our employees and our contractors, our operations are really efficient,” Fraser says. “It’s all up to the market conditions.”