Update from Western Forest Products on the Nanaimo sawmill incident

NANAIMO, BRITISH COLUMBIA–(Marketwired – April 30, 2014) – Four people were shot at the Western Forest Products (WEF.TO) sawmill in Nanaimo this morning. Tragically, two of them have succumbed to their injuries. The suspect is in the custody of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Two other victims remain in hospital.

At a press conference held by the RCMP in Nanaimo this morning, Don Demens, President and CEO of Western Forest Products, said, “Today a terrible tragedy occurred at our sawmill here in Nanaimo. I want to express our deepest sympathy and condolences to the families, friends and employees, as well as those who lost their lives this morning and those who were injured. The safety of our employees is our top priority. We will continue to fully cooperate with all authorities and will determine next steps in the next few hours. We will do everything in our power for our injured colleagues and for those affected by this tragic event. I would ask everyone to respect the needs of the families of the victims and our family at Western.”

The RCMP will release information as their investigation progresses.

Out of respect for our colleagues, Western has closed all sawmills and forestry operations on Vancouver Island today.

Critical incident stress counselors are brought in to work with employees.

As we have more information, we and the RCMP will provide updates.

Western Forest Products

Western is an integrated Canadian forest products company and the largest forestry operation and lumber producer in coastal British Columbia, with an annual available harvest of approximately 6.4 million cubic metres of timber, of which approximately 6.2 million cubic metres is from Crown land, and over 1.1 billion board feet of timber capacity from eight sawmills and two reprocessing facilities. The Company’s primary activities include timber harvesting, reforestation, processing of logs into lumber and byproducts, and value-added reprocessing. Virtually all of Western’s operations, employees and corporate facilities are located in coastal British Columbia, while the Company’s products are sold in over 25 countries worldwide.