The provincial government is contributing $7 million in partnership with investments from Mercer Mass Timber into its operations in Okanagan Falls.
Minster of State for Trade Jagrup Brar, Boundary-Similkameen MLA Roly Russell, Okanagan Falls regional director Matt Taylor and local media were invited to take a tour of the facility on July 17 for the announcement.
The $7 million is not a grant, but will support Mercer’s own investments into the facility, which will provide for 28 new sustainable jobs. The Okanagan Falls facilities currently have about 90 positions.
“Just as the area director for this community, we really appreciate this investment by the provincial government that through Mercer comes into our community and provides more jobs,” said Taylor. “It’s investments like this that are keeping this town going in a positive direction.”
Mercer, which is based in B.C. in the Lower Mainland, purchased the facility after its original operator Structurlam declared bankruptcy in 2023.
Since then, the company has recalled all of the employees that had been laid off and even begun hiring for new positions, according to the company’s senior vice-president, Brian Merwin, and operations have been steadily spinning up.
The Okanagan Falls facility has played a key role in the projects Mercer currently has underway.
“The really cool thing about this location, it’s not the biggest plant in the Mercer Group, but what we do here are a lot of the special sizes, the curved beams,” said Merwin. “They’re able to allow us to execute on projects anywhere in North America where there’s complicated pieces that need to be made.”
While most projects are under non-disclosure agreements, one that Merwin spoke to was the Theodore Roosevelt Presidential Library. That project in North Dakota is being built using beams and material produced in Okanagan Falls.
The glulam (glued laminated timber) produced in Okanagan Falls was also used in the building of the 18-storey Brock Commons student residence at the University of B.C., a project that at the time was the tallest wood structure in the world.
“British Columbia is truly a North American leader when it comes to building with mass timber,” said Brar. “We have the highest number of per capita mass timber buildings, and we continue to build more capacity. That’s what we are doing here through the manufacturing job fund.”
The investment of $7 million through the BC Manufacturing Jobs Fund and Mercer’s own investments will go toward upgrades and equipment with the aim of increasing the quality of its product and increasing the amount of glulam it produces by 25 per cent.
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