PJ The Belt - December 16, 2025


Canada Explodes as Major Exports SHUT DOWN - Small Towns Dissapear!


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

149.47624

Word Count

1,641

Sentence Count

167

Misogynist Sentences

3

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Rural areas of Canada are becoming ghost towns as the people are forced to move to the big cities in order to make a living. The Canadian resource industry is suffering some of the biggest losses it has experienced in the past 40 years. From steel plants shutting down to mines being forced to close, now the lumber industry is the latest victim of destructive policies from a woke government that couldn t care less if all blue-collar jobs disappeared tomorrow.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Did you know the Canadian resource industry is suffering some of the biggest losses it has experienced in the past 40 years?
00:00:07.600 From steel plants shutting down to mines being forced to close.
00:00:12.240 And now the lumber industry.
00:00:14.120 The latest victim of destructive policies from a woke government that couldn't care less if all blue-collar jobs disappeared tomorrow.
00:00:23.280 And what you got left behind is the destruction of small-town Canada.
00:00:27.100 Rural areas are becoming ghost towns as the people are forced to move to the big cities in order to make a living.
00:00:34.500 Is this all a coincidence?
00:00:36.340 Is it just the way life goes?
00:00:38.960 I don't know.
00:00:40.080 You tell me.
00:00:43.860 So we got reports of the unfortunate news that West Fraser is closing another lumber sawmill out in 100 Mile House in the interior of British Columbia.
00:00:57.100 There is shock and sadness in 100 Mile House.
00:01:04.000 The impact emotionally, physically, spiritually when these things happen is very devastating.
00:01:11.500 The town's lumber mill is closing for good.
00:01:15.060 Families leaving.
00:01:16.040 I've lived in this area my whole life, so that would be a big change for me.
00:01:22.360 As the economy changes, worry grows.
00:01:26.160 The parts of rural Canada are in crisis.
00:01:29.320 You think things are just perfectly fine.
00:01:32.200 And then a major industry just stops.
00:01:38.260 100 Mile House is a lumber town.
00:01:40.960 There used to be three mills here.
00:01:42.720 In November, West Fraser gave notice.
00:01:49.740 The last mill left is closing.
00:01:55.620 165 people out of work.
00:01:59.140 Hi, Sven.
00:01:59.940 Hi, Lindsay.
00:02:00.440 How are you doing?
00:02:01.060 I'm good.
00:02:01.480 Nice to see you.
00:02:02.060 Nice to see you as well.
00:02:03.620 Laborer Sven Berkner isn't sure how many shifts he has left.
00:02:07.840 So how are you feeling?
00:02:08.500 Feeling pretty sad.
00:02:10.380 Pretty sad about stuff.
00:02:12.020 The last log was processed weeks ago.
00:02:15.040 It's all clean up now.
00:02:16.720 None of this is easy.
00:02:18.300 You know, we are mill workers, so we have a little tough time sometimes expressing our emotion.
00:02:23.020 I get the sense that it's very tough for quite a lot of people.
00:02:29.800 About 2,000 people live in 100 Mile House, in the heart of BC's interior.
00:02:34.920 Once the big machines finish, technology takes over.
00:02:40.380 I mean, imagine that for a second.
00:02:42.480 The company just says that they're going to lay you off.
00:02:44.660 They're just shutting down right before Christmas.
00:02:48.520 That's got to hit hard, man.
00:02:50.300 You got a family to feed.
00:02:51.700 You got bills to pay.
00:02:53.380 And suddenly you just find out you'll be out of a job in no time.
00:02:57.040 Rough.
00:02:57.820 The mill opened 40 years ago.
00:02:59.960 Even then, tariffs were a problem.
00:03:02.260 Now, it's so much worse.
00:03:07.660 Well, the tariffs don't help.
00:03:10.080 Rob Barron is Wes Fraser's regional manager.
00:03:13.040 He says forest fires hit the area hard.
00:03:16.060 Mountain pine beetle, too.
00:03:18.080 The mill has salvaged what it can, but it's just too expensive to get to the trees that are left.
00:03:23.740 We worked hard to have the best operation we could here.
00:03:27.900 And our employees work very hard.
00:03:30.520 In spite of everybody doing the best they can, the economics of the fire supply just don't work for us.
00:03:36.200 So I kind of foresaw a little bit months in advance.
00:03:39.600 Berkner had a sense layoffs were coming when the Christmas party was cancelled.
00:03:43.680 I made a comment to my co-workers and I said, you know, if they can't afford a Christmas party, they may as well close the doors.
00:03:50.580 And it was kind of a half joke that I was making.
00:03:53.000 And unfortunately, you know, it did come to that.
00:03:58.400 He's been here before.
00:04:00.020 He was laid off when the last mill closed.
00:04:02.660 Now he's helping his girlfriend raise three young children.
00:04:06.180 He's eligible to apply for other jobs at West Fraser Mills in other towns, but he's not going to.
00:04:11.780 He plans to work as a server in a local restaurant instead.
00:04:16.000 From having two mills closed in one town, I fear that if I do relocate and get another job in the mill industry, even the mining industry,
00:04:24.560 I fear that it will not be a secure job for me in the future.
00:04:28.600 You worry it could happen again?
00:04:29.920 Or it could happen again, absolutely.
00:04:32.300 He blames politicians.
00:04:34.780 I do believe that our B.C. government, as well as our Liberal government, has really let us down.
00:04:40.960 Who else is he going to blame?
00:04:43.760 I mean, you got politicians with the whole elbows up BS trying to do political posturing while jobs are at risk instead of negotiating a deal, getting it done.
00:04:55.060 Oh, we're going to run ads in Washington state.
00:04:57.900 We're going to run ads just south of the border instead of trying to negotiate in good faith so that the tariffs end.
00:05:03.700 But then they say, ah, tariffs are really a tax on the American people, yet industries are shutting down.
00:05:10.620 You got steel mills, steel plants shutting down.
00:05:15.100 You got car plants heading south.
00:05:18.140 And now you have the lumber industry also shutting down.
00:05:22.500 But politicians don't care.
00:05:23.860 It's not their job on the line.
00:05:25.700 It's not their family that's going to have to figure that out.
00:05:28.840 So they don't care.
00:05:32.300 Maureen Pinckney is the mayor of 100 Mile House.
00:05:35.500 50-50!
00:05:37.000 She also volunteers at junior hockey games.
00:05:40.060 I was born and raised here.
00:05:41.760 Thank you.
00:05:42.800 100 Mile has had its ups and downs.
00:05:47.940 Wranglers games are a big deal.
00:05:50.180 Hundreds turn out.
00:05:51.660 With the mill closing, there's anger and anxiety in the stands.
00:05:55.820 We're trying to keep it really positive because we have so much to offer here.
00:05:59.440 But it's devastating.
00:06:01.420 She says those 165 job cuts could actually mean 500 people out of work
00:06:08.320 when you factor in cuts to industries that support the mill.
00:06:12.280 Everyone's affected.
00:06:13.760 And not just workers that are with the mill.
00:06:16.840 They have spouses.
00:06:18.180 And, you know, we may end up losing some nurses
00:06:20.180 because if they have to transfer to work somewhere else.
00:06:22.800 The emergency room here has already had closures
00:06:26.400 because there isn't enough staff.
00:06:28.860 Losing nurses would make it worse.
00:06:31.240 And then there's taxes.
00:06:32.860 The entire budget for 100 Mile House is $3.5 million a year.
00:06:38.460 $460,000 of that came from the mill.
00:06:41.600 Not anymore.
00:06:42.820 So that's a big hit.
00:06:44.220 That's a really big hit.
00:06:45.560 So we still have to provide water, sewer, roads, sidewalks.
00:06:49.800 And we don't have a way.
00:06:54.120 Pinkney is lobbying federal and provincial governments for cash
00:06:57.640 and trying to attract new business.
00:07:00.280 She knows other communities are doing the same.
00:07:03.300 You think things are just perfectly fine.
00:07:06.280 And then a major industry just stops.
00:07:09.840 But it's happened to a lot of towns literally across Canada.
00:07:13.620 Rural Canada is, yeah, kind of going the way of the dodo, I guess.
00:07:18.180 I don't know.
00:07:19.040 Mark Bassat worked at the mill for 27 years.
00:07:22.580 He's interviewed for positions at West Fraser's other mills.
00:07:25.960 When you haven't done an interview in a long, long time,
00:07:29.400 you feel very vulnerable.
00:07:31.200 Whatever happens, he's pretty sure he, his wife,
00:07:34.540 and his three kids will have to move.
00:07:37.000 The uncertainty of having to sell a home
00:07:39.020 and, you know, see what you get for it
00:07:41.440 and then having to buy another home somewhere else,
00:07:43.980 uprooting the family and, you know, changing their normal life.
00:07:48.480 That's absolutely tough.
00:07:50.520 Absolutely tough.
00:07:51.380 Imagine you've lived in a town for 10, 20, 30 years,
00:07:55.180 worked the same job,
00:07:56.760 probably went up a little bit in the corporate ladder
00:07:59.360 or within that job.
00:08:02.280 You know, maybe you made supervisor,
00:08:03.800 maybe you made manager or whatever,
00:08:05.820 and then suddenly they shut it down
00:08:08.160 and you got to go and apply for another job somewhere else,
00:08:10.860 maybe at an entry-level position.
00:08:13.160 It's difficult.
00:08:14.620 So many people in Canada are having to go through that right now
00:08:17.980 because politicians couldn't be bothered
00:08:20.540 to leave the politics at the door
00:08:22.900 and actually get to work and work out a deal
00:08:26.040 so that industry,
00:08:28.420 so that blue-collar workers can keep their jobs.
00:08:31.240 It's crazy what's happening.
00:08:33.760 He hopes he can get a job in a town not too far away,
00:08:37.880 in a community not too different from this.
00:08:41.340 You have to be positive and, you know,
00:08:44.820 things will work out.
00:08:46.040 I believe that.
00:08:48.360 Shortly after our interview,
00:08:50.680 Wes Fraser announced the indefinite closure
00:08:53.120 of its strand board plant in high-level Alberta,
00:08:56.480 another 190 jobs gone in another small town.
00:09:01.240 There's no community that is immune to this happening.
00:09:04.620 There really isn't.
00:09:05.680 I mean, it's one thing when we see
00:09:07.440 the forestry industry starting to go down,
00:09:09.620 but then we start to see also the steel industry
00:09:11.560 starting to go down.
00:09:12.660 Yeah, it's happening everywhere, man.
00:09:14.400 It's happening everywhere,
00:09:15.840 and it's happening to everything,
00:09:17.180 particularly in Western Canada,
00:09:19.580 in the interior of British Columbia.
00:09:21.180 It's happening in Saskatchewan.
00:09:22.520 It's happening in Alberta.
00:09:24.520 The only real growth growth that Canada is experiencing
00:09:27.960 is government workers.
00:09:29.500 There are more government workers today
00:09:32.240 than there have ever been in the history of this country.
00:09:35.960 The size of the government has grown incredibly,
00:09:39.320 grew under Trudeau,
00:09:40.660 and it continues to grow under Mark Carney.
00:09:43.360 And those people, they never get laid off.
00:09:45.400 Yeah, government, right?
00:09:46.440 It's a government thing.
00:09:47.700 But the real jobs out there,
00:09:49.460 the real private sector jobs are disappearing,
00:09:52.820 especially in small towns,
00:09:54.880 especially in Western Canada.
00:09:56.700 And it's a shame.
00:09:58.580 It really is a shame.
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