How It All Started

The pulp and paper industry came to British Columbia in 1903 when a wood pulp mill was built at Swanson Bay on the central coast.

​

It wasn’t long before other operators, seeing demand from the Unites States for newsprint, started mills at Port Mellon in Howe Sound in 1908, at Ocean Falls in 1911, Woodfibre, also in Howe Sound, in 1912, and Port Alice on northern Vancouver Island in 1918.

​

The combination of a plentiful, affordable fibre supply, proximity to the US market, tidewater locations, and secure, low cost energy drove the industry’s strong growth with mills being built at locations from Prince Rupert to Powell River, and from Port Alberni to Nanaimo. Dozens of BC communities and thousands of BC workers and families came to rely on steady employment and investment at what had become a cornerstone BC industry.

​

Expansion into the Interior began in the mid-1960s, adding communities like Kamloops, Prince George, Mackenzie, Cranbrook, Castlegar and Quesnel to the list of pulp mill towns. New markets in Asia and Europe were added, as were new products such as writing papers, dissolving pulp, sanitary paper, container board, and boxboard. 

​

Today BC’s 16 pulp and paper mills employ some 23,000 British Columbians and comprise one of the province’s biggest and steadiest exporters.