Federal Court - Christian Aboriginal Infrastructure Developments ...

Page: 93
[365] The Plaintiffs were aware, prior to the opening of the mill in October 1998, that KFR had a
timber harvesting agreement and that KFR could sell wood from their THA without needing to
obtain prior permission from the Department.
[366] The mill opened in October 1998 and shut down a couple of months later, due to a lack of
timber supply. The mill had been installed, by the joint venture, in Watson Lake, on the site that
2010 FC 495 (CanLII)
LPL had leased. The mill was assembled on site after construction in Vanderhoof. It consisted of a
building placed on a 20,000 square foot slab of concrete.
[367] The mill operation included an exterior sorting system that was designed to cut wood to
length after it had been debarked. The site included a scale to weigh the wood. The weight of wood
was used both to calculate the stumpage fee to be paid to the Government and to record inventory in
the yard. As well, there were two processing machines to remove limbs or pieces of limbs, called
“snipes”, from the logs.
[368] The mill, as built, was designed around a 7 inch average diameter of log and required an
average of 16,666 m 3 of wood per month, to operate on double shifts. This is a quantity of
approximately 200,000 m 3 per year. The mill was built to produce 100,000 of board feet per shift.
[369] Mr. Spencer testified that he was comfortable with the mill design and its equipment when it
began operating in October 1998.