Bad news hits hard in small towns. Take Mackenzie, a community of about 4,000 in the Rocky Mountain Trench about 1,000 kilometres northeast of Vancouver.
Last November, the town`s biggest employer, Montreal-based AbitibiBowater Inc., announced it would "indefinitely idle" its paper mill and two sawmills in Mackenzie as part of a broader restructuring, putting about 750 people out of work.
Mackenzie mayor Stephanie Killam didn`t have to look far for the fallout. Three of the district`s six councillors worked for Abitibi. Two others were married to Abitibi employees. That body blow was mirrored throughout the town, which was already reeling from an earlier mill shutdown by another company that wiped out more than 400 jobs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ritishColumbia/
Last November, the town`s biggest employer, Montreal-based AbitibiBowater Inc., announced it would "indefinitely idle" its paper mill and two sawmills in Mackenzie as part of a broader restructuring, putting about 750 people out of work.
Mackenzie mayor Stephanie Killam didn`t have to look far for the fallout. Three of the district`s six councillors worked for Abitibi. Two others were married to Abitibi employees. That body blow was mirrored throughout the town, which was already reeling from an earlier mill shutdown by another company that wiped out more than 400 jobs.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...ritishColumbia/